From athletics to tennis, corruption scandals invade the sports field

Over the last few weeks, many sports fans have found their conversations taking a rather unusual turn. Instead of discussing scores and comparing statistics, fans of many major sports are busy speculating about topics most often found on the pages of books about the Mafia – money-laundering, corruption and most damagingly, match-fixing.

From cricket to athletics to football, it is becoming increasingly apparent that something is decidedly rotten in the upper tiers of international sporting bodies.

While football and cricket are no strangers to the problem of match-fixing, tennis had remained blissfully untouched, creating the impression that corruption had been confined to the lower levels of the game. But that notion was rudely dispelled when on the eve of the Australian Open earlier this week, a BBC-Buzzfeed investigation alleged massive match-fixing involving players ranked within the world Top 50.

Here is a look at the recent ills afflicting major sports.

Cricket: South Africa again
International cricket has never really been a stranger of match-fixing since South African captain Hansie Cronje admitted to taking money to fix a game in 2000. But just when fans were celebrating the return of Mohammad Aamir, a talented young Pakistani fast bowler who six years ago had admitted to participating in spot-fixing, controversy broke out in other quarters. Ironically, it was South Africa again – news emerged last week that authorities were investigating a match-fixing racket in the 2015 edition of the nation’s domestic Twenty20 league, the RamSlam T20 Challenge Series.

The first person to be charged as an “intermediary” was former South African international cricketer Gulam Bodi. But that was just the start with reports speculating that two former Test cricketers were also said to be involved. More names are likely to come out in the days ahead.

That was not all – over in Sri Lanka at the beginning of the month, it emerged that two national team players were reportedly approached to fix a match in October. In the ensuing investigation, one of Sri Lanka’s long time fast bowling coaches Anusha Samaranayake was suspended while the main suspect Gayan Wishwajith was banned for life.

Football: The Blatter chronicles
Football has its own dose of match-fixing scandals but it is currently at the centre of a corruption scandal that gets bigger every day. Amidst much speculation of widespread financial misbehaviour in the game’s governing body FIFA, Swiss policemen walked into a five-star hotel in Zurich in May and arrested seven top FIFA officials on charges of fraud, racketeering and money laundering. It soon blew into something bigger – former president Sepp Blatter who fought various allegations of corruption through his five-term presidency, had criminal proceedings opened against him in September. Despite remaining defiant, FIFA finally bit the bullet and suspended him along with others.

It would seem that the net is slowly tightening around Blatter as one of his close associates Jerome Valcke was sacked by FIFA last week. Valcke is facing a nine-year ban for various alleged offences. But despite all this, nothing much seems to have changed – reports emerged on Tuesday that Blatter was still being paid his salary (estimated to be over $6 million) from the very organisation which has banned him.

Athletics: Doping and corruption
Professional athletics has always struggled with doping controversies but the recent scandal suggests that the malaise might run deeper. A damning report from the World Anti-Doping Agency provided evidence of widespread and systematic doping in the sport, especially in Russia. The report also went on to recommend that Russia should be banned for all athletics competition until it gets its house in order.

The bigger story was that the report also made it clear that there was no way the governing body of international athletics the International Association of Athletic Federations, could have possibly been unaware of what was going on, considering the scale of the racket. High-ranking former officials of the organisation were then charged with corruption, with former IAAF president Lamine Diack accused of accepting money from Russia to cover up positive doping tests.

In fact, the IAAF scandal has been called even worse than the crisis that has hit FIFA, giving an idea of the impact it has had on the sport. For a sport which has given millions the joy of watch supremely talented athletes like Usain Bolt, it truly is a sad state of affairs.

The Tennis Racket
And finally, “the Tennis Racket”. According to the joint BuzzFeed-BBC investigation, match-fixing is widespread in tennis with 16 core players suspected of throwing games. In fact, the allegations have cast serious aspersions on matches in the Grand Slam, with claims that matches in the prestigious Wimbledon may have also been fixed.

The root of the scandal supposedly lies in a suspicious match that took place between then world number four Nikolay Davydenko and a much lower-ranked Vassallo Arguello at the Polish Open in Sopot in 2007. Though Davydenko was the favourite and led by a set, large bets were made favouring Arguello.

Subsequently, Davydenko complained of ankle pain and withdrew, an action that was instantly regarded as suspicious. Later investigations did not find any of them guilty, but the latest reports allege that gambling syndicates in Russia and Italy make thousands of pounds by placing bets and fixing games.

While tennis is not new to match-fixing and has suspended players previously, this is the first time that players in the uppermost tiers of the sport have come under suspicion. Since no names have been mentioned, every top player in the ongoing Australian Open has been confronted with questions. While Roger Federer and Serena Williams flatly dismissed such claims, Novak Djokovic shocked quite a few when he admitted that a member of his staff had been approached once early in his career.