Integrity in sports update: 5 Nepali footballers charged with treason over alleged fixing of 2011 World Cup qualifiers

This week’s media recap highlights a high number of good practice articles from around the globe. INTERPOL is to coordinate a global investigation led by France into an alleged international corruption scam involving sports officials, as well as athletes suspected of a doping cover-up. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has signed an agreement with Sportradar, which will see both organisations exchanging information concerning sports betting and the integrity of sports competitions. INTERPOL and the IOC also held a Train-the-Trainer Workshop together with the Canadian Olympic Committee, which broadened knowledge and understanding of competition manipulation, how to recognize it, how to prevent and resist it, and how to deal with it if it should occur. The United States Major League Baseball has also announced a partnership with Sport Integrity Monitor for real-time monitoring of betting lines so as to protect the game.

In Nepal, five footballers have appeared in court charged with treason over alleged match-fixing in the World Cup qualifiers in 2011. The footballers are out on bail but the team’s physiotherapist who is also implicated is still on the run from police.

CURRENT INVESTIGATION

Nepal

Five Nepali footballers have appeared in court charged with treason over alleged match-fixing in World Cup qualifiers in 2011. The footballers - including former captain Sagar Thapa and goalkeeper Ritesh Thapa - were arrested last month after police said they found large sums of money from suspected match-fixers in their bank accounts. A lawyer for one of the players says they deny all charges. Prosecutors are seeking life sentences. "We hope the truth will come out," Thapa told reporters outside the Special Court in Kathmandu. Five of the players are in police custody while another - a physiotherapist for the team - is regarded as a fugitive. The hearing will continue on Tuesday, when the judge will decide whether to keep the accused in custody or release them on bail. The players were charged under a 1989 act against "unlawfully jeopardising Nepal's sovereignty, integrity or national unity", said Bhadrakali Pokharel, registrar at the Special Court in Kathmandu. Speaking to AFP, he added: "The government has charged the five footballers arrested last month with treason and has sought a life sentence as punishment."

The footballers were alleged to have deliberately lost several games in 2011 as part of Nepal's unsuccessful bid for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Football's world governing body Fifa has been embroiled in a series of alleged corruption scandals in recent months.

Source: "Nepal footballers in treason hearing over match-fixing", 9 November 2015, BBC News, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34763303

GOOD PRACTICE

Canada

Michael Chambers, Immediate Past President of the Canadian Olympic Committee and Chair of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) Juridical Commission, who opened the workshop, said following it: "The cross-sections of coaches and other representatives of Olympic sport in Canada who attended the first IOC-INTERPOL Train the Trainer Workshop left with a greatly broadened knowledge and understanding of competition manipulation, how to recognise it, how to prevent and resist it, and how to deal with it if it should occur. It is heartening to see that concrete steps are being taken to implement the IOC’s initiatives in relation to integrity in sport and its Agenda 2020 commitment to protect clean athletes.” The manipulation of sports competitions, in particular when linked to betting activities, has become an area of great concern in recent years. Like doping, such corruption threatens the very integrity of sport. Olympic Agenda 2020, the new strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement, has reiterated the IOC’s commitment and drive to protect clean athletes and the integrity of sports. A number of measures have thus been initiated and implemented, including robust educational awareness programmes to prevent Olympic events from any kind of manipulation. A new reporting mechanism for potential cases of competition manipulation as well as other violations – the Integrity and Compliance Hotline – was also successfully launched earlier this year. The approach of the Train the Trainers Workshop series is very pragmatic. In Winnipeg, the IOC and INTERPOL presented strategies and tools that are available to prevent, educate and investigate allegations or suspicions of competition manipulation.

Source: "Canada welcomes IOC-INTERPOL workshop on integrity in sport ", 13 November 2015, Olympic.org, https://www.olympic.org/news/canada-welcomes-ioc-interpol-workshop-on-integrity-in-sport/247455

Tuesday, 17 November 2015