INTERPOL Integrity in Sport Bi-Weekly Bulletin - 11 June 2018 - 25 June 2018

As part of an international investigation into match fixing in tennis, Belgian prosecutors have charged a sixth person with corruption, money laundering and other crimes. The first five accused were among 13 people who were detained in Belgium following a series of simultaneous raids in multiple countries on June 5. In Spain, the police has made again a large number of arrests over allegations of match fixing in Spanish football, and link to arrests earlier this year on charges of membership of an illegal betting syndicate.

In cricket, the ICC launched an investigation into revelations by a Pakistani batsman, claiming bookmakers approached him on several occasions for alleged corrupt activities.

In terms of sanctions, Albanian club KS Skenderbeu has failed in its bid at CAS to have its 10-year ban from European competition overturned. In Tennis, two Argentinian tennis players have been suspended for committing breaches and match-fixing offences under the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program. One player was sanctioned for failing to report corrupt approaches, while the second sanction related to fixing the outcome of a match at an ATP Challenger. In cricket, the ICC provisionally suspended and charged a Zimbabwe official with three counts of breaching its anti-corruption code.

An investigative documentary on football in Ghana has led a court to suspend the country’s football association over a bribery scandal. Negotiations between the sports and youth minister of Ghana, Ghana football representatives and FIFA on the matter are ongoing.

In a call for specific match-fixing legislation, police officers and lawyers in India have claimed that the lack of any specific law to on spot fixing and betting in cricket, has led to a low rate of conviction.

In Vietnam, the National Assembly approved a new law that allows locals to bet on soccer matches held overseas, and will take effect next year.

Also in Asia, football crazy countries have become illegal betting hotspots due to a lack of legal gambling means. Bettors use cryptocurrencies to avoid detection by authorities and use messaging and social networking platforms like WeChat to place bets. Authorities face a hard time in curbing activities that have now gone digital.

In terms of cooperation and partnership, the Champions Hockey League (CHL), the premier European ice hockey competition, brings in Sportradar for integrity insight, while the Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) and the Council of Europe have signed an informal memorandum of understanding on June 22 regarding the cooperation between GLMS and the Group of Copenhagen (GoC), the network of national platforms.

In Italy, Roma’s long-delayed plans to build a new stadium hit another major obstacle Wednesday when nine people were arrested for alleged corruption.

Finally, UNODC have a job offer for a consultant <https://app.nimble.com/api/v1/messages/tracking/click/51189a01e3b7c848c5c626dd/519fd147b8e4a17e77df32f8/5b30e9572aada61daec372c7/> to assist in the drafting of UNODC-IOC Whistleblowing Guidelines in sports.

We welcome submissions on best practices, major developments, new trends and relevant articles for publication in the bulletin. We also welcome hard copies of publications that your Organization is producing in the field of sports corruption at the below address.

The next bi-weekly bulletin will be circulated on Monday, 9 July 2018.

Monday, 25 June 2018