INTERPOL Integrity in Sport Bi-Weekly Bulletin - 19 February 2019 - 4 March 2019
Operation Bloodletting targeting blood doping has led to the arrest of nine individuals in a series of raids on 16 properties, carried out by 120 officers from both the German and Austrian police. Five cross-country skiers from Austria, Estonia and Kazakhstan who were arrested in connection with the criminal doping investigation have also received provisional suspensions from the International Ski Federation (FIS). As part of the investigation, an Austrian professional cyclist admitted to doping after being arrested.
In Australia, two men have been charged with match-fixing offences after an 18-month investigation in the third tier of Australian football. A 54-year-old has been charged for engaging in conduct that corrupts or would corrupt a betting outcome, and facilitating conduct that corrupts or would corrupt a betting outcome. In addition, a 52-year-old has also been charged with facilitating match-fixing conduct. It is believed to be only the second time match-fixing charges have been laid in relation to a football league in Australia.
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) banned for life and fined a Tanzanian referee for accepting bribes to manipulate several national and international matches between 2009 and 2012. Additionally, FIFA banned for life and fined a Zambian football official for accepting bribes to manipulate several international matches in 2010.
A former Sri Lanka captain has been banned from cricket for two years after admitting to two breaches of the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption code. The 49-year-old admitted failing to cooperate with an investigation and concealing, tampering with or destroying evidence. This is part of a wider investigation into corruption in Sri Lankan cricket.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to discontinue the services of International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption Unit’s services for the 12th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The BCCI will employ its own corruption unit for IPL 2019. Moreover, the UK Home Secretary has ordered the extradition of an alleged bookie to India to face charges of cricket match-fixing involving a former South African captain in 2000.
In terms of legislation, Sri Lanka’s Sports Minister announced that the country will establish new law against match-fixing and that the proposed Act will impose a five-year prison sentence.
An official in New York State has said that a proposed bill will likely allow sports betting in local stadiums in New York, unless faced with strong opposition.
Lastly, we would like to share with our readership the report <https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/71c67c33-1dff-11e9-8d04-01aa75ed71a1/language-en> on Mapping of corruption in sport in the European Union prepared for the European Commission.
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, 18 March 2019.
- Anti-Corruption Anti-Doping Athletics Australia Austria Austrian Olympic Committee Basketball Batu Dua FC Betting Cameroon Cameroon Basketball Federation Cricket Cycling Estonia European Commission FA Cup FIFA Football France Gambling Germany India Kazakhstan Malaysia Match Fixing National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) New York NPL Skiing Sport and Culture (DG EAC) Sports Betting Sri Lanka Tanzania Thailand The Directorate-General for Education United Kingdom (UK) United States of America (USA) Victoria World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Youth Zambia
