INTERPOL Integrity in Sport Bi-Weekly Bulletin - 19 March 2019 - 1 April 2019

In Europe, seven French tennis players were detained and questioned by the French police under suspicions of match-fixing, with a total of 137 players under suspicion in the Belgian-led investigation. In Asia, the former interim chairman of Indonesia’s football association was detained by the Indonesian police for allegedly being involved in match-fixing. In Oceania, Australian operator Sportsbet was fined with AUS $10,000 from New South Wales’ authorities after being convicted of displaying illicit gambling advertisements on its website.

In terms of sanctions, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) banned a Danish top-10 player for 18 months for failing to disclose approaches to fix two of his matches and not cooperating fully with an investigation. The Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) suspended and fined a Swedish tennis player after admitting to betting on his sport. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) gave a lifetime ban to the former head of Ecuador’s football federation after finding him guilty of taking bribes. FIFA has also banned for life a Togolese referee and football official for accepting bribes. In Ghana, FIFA set up a task force to create mechanisms to combat corruption in football.

Kosovo has banned gambling for 10 years in an effort to act against organized crime after a series of armed robberies in which two casino workers were killed.

With regards to doping, France has issued arrest warrants for the former head of Russian athletics and the former Russian national team coach, both banned from athletics for life in 2016 after the state-sponsored Russian doping was uncovered.

In Indonesia, prosecutors named the Youth and Sports Minister on a list of alleged recipients of bribes from the National Sports Committee (KONI). In Italy, the president of Rome’s city council has been arrested for allegedly accepting bribes in relation to Roma’s plans to build a new stadium. In the United States, a judge fined two sports marketing companies with $500,000 each for their involvement in bribing top international soccer officials in exchange for commercial rights to major tournaments.

The head of the Japanese Olympic Committee announced to resign in June 2019 following a corruption investigation linked to Tokyo’s successful bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games. The Qatari president of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) was heard as part of an investigation into suspected corruption on the side-lines of the Doha bid for the World Athletics Championships.

Further evidence of corruption in the Rio 2016 boxing tournament emerged as a recording of a phone conversation between a judge requesting $250,000 from a Mongolian official to qualify for the final was made available. In the meantime, International Boxing Federation (AIBA) informed the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that swift progress is being made to clean up the sport. The AIBA president, who is accused of being one of Uzbekistan’s “leading criminals” with “links to the heroin trade” by the US Treasury, has offered to step down from his current position. An AIBA executive committee member made an offer of $16 million to clear the organization’s debt if the IOC keeps the sport in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Finally, the Spanish gambling regulatory authority has released a new awareness campaign, warning national stakeholders of preventing under-age-gambling and potential sports corruption.

We are pleased to welcome you to our new Corruption in sport webpages at the following link: https://www.interpol.int/Crimes/Corruption/Corruption-in-sport

We welcome submissions on best practices, major developments, new trends and relevant articles for publication in the bulletin.

The next bi-weekly bulletin will be circulated on Monday, 15 April 2019.

Monday, 01 April 2019