INTERPOL Integrity in Sport Bi-Weekly Bulletin - 15 May 2018 - 28 May 2018
Over the past two weeks of May, several ongoing investigations involving players, referees and club officials concluded with sanctions and sentences.
In South America, two Argentinian tennis players were found guilty of breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program for failing to report corrupted approaches and failing to cooperate with a Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) investigation. Additionally, one of them was also found guilty of match-fixing. The sanctions are to be determined at a further date.
In Asia, two Chinese snooker players have been suspended over match-fixing allegations for manipulating the outcome of matches and failing to fully cooperate with a World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) investigation. Moreover, one of the players was also found guilty for betting on snooker and failing to report approaches to fix a match.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) warned Pakistani players against wearing smartwatches during play in order to avoid allegations of match-fixing.
In Europe, a Serbian referee has been arrested and questioned on abuse of power charges for favoring the home team against their rivals. Ukrainian police accused 35 soccer clubs of match-fixing and started carrying out raids. Portuguese police detained a top official of Lisbon football club Sporting and three others linked to the club on suspicion of corruption.
In the Middle East, the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) banned a World Cup-bound referee for life for a match-fixing attempt.
In Africa, the president of Ghana has ordered the immediate arrest of the country’s football association president. A meeting between past and present International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) presidents due to take place last week was cancelled. Former IAAF president remains under house arrest since being charged with corruption and money laundering in November 2017.
INTERPOL and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have held a workshop to strengthen Nigeria’s fight against corruption in sports and competition manipulation.
The workshop brought together 70 representatives from Nigerian law enforcement, government, betting entities and sports organizations, as well as a delegation from Ghana. They addressed current threats to the integrity of sport as well as global crime trends in competition manipulation.
In terms of good practices, the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) and the Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) have signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to work closely together to combat match-fixing in tennis.
We would also like to invite our readership to explore an article <https://app.nimble.com/api/v1/messages/tracking/click/51189a01e3b7c848c5c626dd/519fd147b8e4a17e77df32f8/5b20d92129e8e9620a07b5ea/> submitted by one of our members on the definition of manipulation of sports competitions.
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, 11 June 2018.
- Anti-Corruption Anti-Doping Argentina China Corruption Cricket Football Ghana Ghana Football Association (GFA) Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) ICC anti-corruption team International Cricket Council (ICC) International Olympic Committee (IOC) INTERPOL Match Fixing Nigeria Pakistan Portugal Saudi Arabia Saudi World Cup Senegal Serbia Snooker Sports Tennis Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP) Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) Ukraine United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA)
