When the Scoreboard Lies: How Dirty Games Changed the People Behind the Story
Some documentaries are merely informative, while others are capable of shaking entire institutions. Benjamin Best’s Dirty Games: The Dark Side of Sports (2016) is an example of the former. As an outspoken documentary, it dismantles the glamorization of contemporary sports, exposing the malignancy of money, self-importance, and politics in the field. But more than the facts and footage, it is about the people the film transformed: the journalists, the whistleblowers, the accusers — all profoundly affected by the very truths they set out to reveal.
It Isn’t About the Sports
Dirty Games is not a traditional sports documentary filled with nostalgia and highlights. It is and it isn’t an examination of sports. It is the revealing of the grim realities of the sports industry: match fixing, doping, trafficking, and fan and athlete exploitation. The film traverses through numerous sports — football, boxing, and basketball — exposing the chilling narratives of how dreams are converted into contracts.
Benjamin Best did not limit his efforts to exposing scandals; he also attempted to analyze why we, as global citizens, continue to elevate systems built on dishonesty. He investigated referees, players, and insiders, and discovered networks of silence that protected careers, until his subjects could no longer bear it. Many of those he interviewed put everything on the line to speak openly on camera. Their testimony constituted the heart and soul of Dirty Games, providing it with emotional substance that surpassed the headlines it subsequently generated.
Benjamin Best: The Man Who Dared to Dig Deeper
Prior to Dirty Games, Benjamin Best was primarily recognized as a journalist specializing in investigative pieces, which he did with remarkable skill. However, this project transformed his reputation, in the public eye, into a cinematic crusader for the integrity of sports. Best devoted years to the effort without institutional support, or the risk mitigation that any reasonable organization would provide. He spent those years gathering information and traveling the globe. He had to deal with the situation of arranging secret interviews, disguising his sources and suffering through screenings that provoked resistance from the depicted organizations.
It is also notable how Dirty Games altered Best’s career. Rather than being a footnote in investigative journalism, he became a testament to unyielding tenacity—a filmmaker determined to honor her vision in a world driven by commercial interests. His subsequent works continued to document corruption, illustrating how Dirty Games was not merely a film for Best, but the beginning of a new, lifelong mission.
Some of the most courageous participants in Dirty Games were the individuals who spoke out when silence would have been the safest option. Among them were sports insiders like Bonita Mersiades, a former FIFA official who had already gone public with accusations of unethical practices. In appearing in the film, she was able to redefine her narrative, elevating her status from internal critic to public truth-teller.
These participants had to contend with reputational loss. Whistleblowers experience backlash not just from the organizations they expose, but also from colleagues and peers, and they receive quiet ‘blacklist’ sanctions from the organizations. For such participants, the end credits don’t signify closure, but the beginning of a new isolation. Yet, numerous participants obtained pain from the film in the form of unexpected connection. Most of the participants formed a small support network. It allows such participants to understand the pain and isolation rationalist whistleblowers experience.
Redemption of Tim Donaghy
One of the film’s most controversial characters was, without doubt, Tim Donaghy, the former NBA referee and one of the true pieces of betting scandal. Before Dirty Games, Donaghy was viewed solely as the villain in his own story — a man who disgracefully undermined the value and integrity of sport. But in Best’s film, Donaghy’s testimony assumed aspects of a victim narrative.
Here, Donaghy wasn’t just a disgraced ref trying to save face, but also a cautionary tale of what a culture of greed and lack of provisions at an organization may do to a person. For people trying to understand the mechanics of manipulation and exploitation, he was a key speaker in illustrating that corruption is rarely the result of a single bad apple. Rather, it is a system that incentivizes and rewards silence.
The film paradoxically provided him an opportunity — not in sports, but in narrative. Donaghy went on to become a prominent speaker on ethics and reform, and as a result, was able to transform the darkest part of his life into a cautionary tale.
What Happened When the Cameras Stopped Rolling
For many of the participants of Dirty Games, life after the filming was a combination of triumph and turmoil. Some of the participants received panellist status, gained notoriety, and were able to continue advocacy work. In contrast, others were forced to the sidelines and were branded as “troublemakers” in the very industries they sought to reform.
Benjamin Best’s interviews reveal the emotional and financial toll the documentary’s production took on him. With such a controversial subject and opening a documentary, funding proved difficult. He traveled from the slums of South America to the corporate towers of Europe, experiencing two extremes of the world, and yet, exploitation was present in both.
The crew’s emotional exhaustion was visible and, in the words of Best, “that felt like proof of the importance of the story they were telling.” Not only the crew, but the subjects being interviewed often caused the staff to physically and emotionally crumble. The crew often found themselves deep in the costs, the emotional costs lost in wealth of the world.
The Film That Would Not Stop Resounding
Dirty Games first began to screen at festivals and the critics were fascinated, but so were the debates. People left the screenings both “sticky and furious” but with an awareness of the brutal exploitation disguised with the passion of sports. The film’s moral “currency” was greatly acknowledged, yet, the film did not profit with the expected revenue.
The impact of the documentary extended into sports journalism. Referring to the documentary became commonplace for journalists, activists referenced it in reform petitions, and educators it to teach ethics. The participants’ personal lives, however, remained scarred and proof that truth telling while noble, rarely comes without collateral damage.
The People Who Became Their Stories
Years later, Dirty Games stands as more than an exposé. It’s also a mirror reflecting the human cost of corruption. Benjamin Best continued his investigative path, Donaghy learned to embrace his complex legacy, and Mersiades became a prominent advocate for global sports reform. Together, they embody a strange duality and a complex legacy: their careers were tainted by the very systems they sought to challenge, but they were also reborn, because they refused to stay silent.
Behind every interview frame and montage in Dirty Games were sleepless nights, emotional breakdowns, and professional exiles. But there was an unspoken victory: a shared understanding that change, no matter how incremental, begins with courage.
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