INTERPOL Integrity in Sport Bi-Weekly Bulletin - 7 August 2018 - 20 August 2018

In Asia, the International Cricket Council (ICC) identified all individuals featured in the undercover Al Jazeera match-fixing documentary and are now requesting unedited footage from the broadcaster in order to move forward with their investigation. In Africa, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) banned another referee for life and six other officials received 10-year suspensions following the undercover camera footage from a Ghanaian journalist.

With regards to widespread corruption, bribery and match-fixing at all levels of the Ghana Football Federation (FA), the Government of Ghana would like to dissolve the Ghana FA, whereas Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) threatens to give an international ban for government interference. Further discussions are needed to find a balance between fighting criminal behaviour per Ghana’s laws and respecting FIFA's laws dealing with interference in the running of football.

In the meantime, FIFA rejected an appeal lodged by former El Salvador head coach against the two-year ban given for failing to report a match-fixing attempt. Recently, FIFA eliminated the term “corruption” from its code of ethics.

In terms of sanctions and sentences, the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) reported that a Chinese tennis player has been disciplined for breaching the anti-corruption code by attempting to change her doubles partner after the sign-in deadline. In connection with this case, her French tennis coach was also suspended from obtaining tournament credentials for three months. Moreover, TIU reported that a German player have been suspended for eight months and fined $7,000 after being found guilty to have placed 280 bets on tennis matches between 2012 and 2015. In addition, an Australian tennis player has been sentenced to 220 hours of community service after he pleaded guilty of fixing a Victorian tennis match and supplying drugs to players. Following a 16-month investigation, Pakistan banned a former test opener for 10 years on multiple charges of spot fixing. Basketball New Zealand referred a case of suspected match-fixing to the police following irregular betting patterns on national basketball.

Thousands of raids have been undertaken and suspects arrested in an INTERPOL-led operation against illegal gambling conducted throughout Asia during the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Operation SOGA VII (short for soccer gambling) saw more than 14,900 raids at illegal gambling dens across China – including Hong Kong and Macao – Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, which were estimated to have handled some USD 1.6 billion worth of bets. To date, the combined seven SOGA operations have resulted in more than 30,000 arrests, the seizure of some USD 57 million in cash and the closure of more than 3,700 illegal gambling dens which handled almost USD 8 billion worth of bets.

We note with interest that Tokyo 2020 will be the first Olympics to use facial recognition technology to increase security around all venues. More than 300,000 athletes and Games staff will have to submit photographs to a database before the Olympics start in July 2020. Also in terms of security, the Council of Europe (COE) affirmed the importance of the coordination meeting held in Doha to activate the bilateral agreement of technical cooperation between Qatar and COE under the Convention on an Integrated Safety, Security and Service Approach at Football Matches and Other Sports Events (CETS No. 218 <https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/rms/0900001680666d0b>).

Also in Japan, the sport of kendo was hit by a corruption scandal, with the All Japan Kendo Federation (AJKF) saying that individuals taking promotional exams often paid money to their examiners in order to win their approval. The committee that received the complaint has asked the Japan Olympic Committee (JOC) and the Japan Sport Association (JSA) to look into the matter.

Lastly, we would like to share with our readership the Report <https://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/63F0A5D7BDA5A0B5CA2582CF0005E6F9/$File/HEALTH-RASIA-Report-Acc.pdf> of the Review of Australia’s Sports Integrity Arrangements.

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 aMonday, 3 September 2018.

Tuesday, 21 August 2018