When it comes to scandals and controversies, there is never a dull moment in the professional footballing world. With that said, let’s dive straight in and take a closer look at the darker side of football and reveal some of the most recent scandals that shook Europe.

The biggest European football scandals in recent times

There has been so much happening in terms of scandals in European football, it’s impossible to list everything right here on this page.

Therefore, here are just a few of the latest European football scandals that occurred at some point in 2024 and 2025 that gained more media attention than most other scandals.

Some of them are ongoing, and details are still emerging about their true gravity. Other scandals were resolved and names were cleared, but they still dominate the European footballing world and beyond.

Here are a few headlines from the past two years:

• When: March 2025. Headline: Ex-FIFA chief Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini cleared of corruption

• When: May 2025. Headline: Europa League final referee was banned over match-fixing scandal and received death threats

• When: March 2025: Headline: Illegal players at Manchester City and Manchester United

• When: April 2025: Headline: New shock Italian football betting scandal

• When: June 2025: Headline: UEFA has handed lifetime bans to two referees for breaking strict rules

• When: April 2024. Headline: Criminals and oligarchs in EU’s sights with new bill targeting football fraud

Many of these stories are easy to find online. For example, if you want to read the latest top stories and have access to some of the world’s most reliable winning football tips, your safest option is to try globally renowned sports news and prediction websites that are well-known for providing the latest stories, one of which is the official MegaTipsList platform.

Honourable mentions

Some of the other major scandals in European football that also gained widespread notoriety and media attention included the kissing scandal, when in February 2025, Luis Rubiales was found guilty of kissing player Jenni Hermoso without her consent and fined €10,800

Also, around the same time, Manchester City were accused of presiding over an Enron-style financial scandal by La Liga's president, Javier Tebas.

Inter Milan are allegedly involved in a massive soccer scandal with fake sponsorships, with news coming to light about this as recently as June 2025, and in other news that hit the headlines in April 2025, European authorities are finally waking up to and tackling the scandal of illegal match-fixing.

Finally, English Premier League side Crystal Palace’s Europa League place was initially placed in doubt in early June 2025 after UEFA rejected the club owners’ blind trust move, and then, in mid-July, the club was banned from the Europa League after UEFA concluded the FA Cup winners were in breach of its multi-club ownership rules.

Final thoughts

The 2025/26 season for top-flight domestic league football is fast approaching, and there will likely be many other new scandals that will soon come to light and shake European football to the core.

However, for the time being, we will just have to wait and see what happens and take the rumours with a pinch of salt until any hard facts are disclosed by reputable sources.