Perceived Corruption and Grassroots Football Development in Epe Local Government Area, Lagos State, Nigeria

This study examined how players, coaches, and officials of amateur football clubs in Epe Local Government Area (LGA), Lagos State, perceive corrupt practices and how those perceptions relate to perceived grassroots football development. Perceptions of corrupt practices were measured with a 12-item Perceived Corrupt Practices Scale (PCPS) covering financial, officiating, administrative and player-related domains and were examined alongside perceived facilities adequacy, sports violence and sponsorship. A cross-sectional, correlational survey was used. Twelve of approximately 28 clubs were selected by balloting, and 283 respondents from these clubs were recruited by convenience sampling to complete a four-point Likert questionnaire between March and May 2025. Data were analysed with descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and multiple regression, treating respondents as independent observations; because respondents were nested within 12 clubs, these preliminary estimates may be too precise. Respondents reported high agreement with statements describing corrupt practices (PCPS M = 3.01, SD = 0.47), low agreement with statements describing adequate facilities (M = 1.72) and low agreement with statements describing developed grassroots football (M = 2.18). Higher perceived corruption was associated with lower perceived facilities adequacy (r = −.39), lower perceived sponsorship adequacy (r = −.25) and lower perceived development (r = −.50), all p < .001, and weakly with higher scores on a violence index (r = .15, p = .012), an association that is sensitive to adjustment for multiple tests. The three perception scores (facilities, violence, sponsorship) together accounted for 35% of the variance in perceived development (R² = .35), but this model did not include perceived corruption. The findings describe the perceptions of respondents from the selected clubs. They do not establish the prevalence of proven misconduct or causal effects. Recommendations are presented as governance options on facility transparency, officiating, age verification, sponsorship reporting and confidential reporting.