News 26 May 2016

Sports Integrity Briefs – 26 May 2016

• Brazilian authorities have expanded a probe into possible corruption at the 2016 Rio Olympics to cover ‘venues and services financed with federal funds’, Reuters reports. According to the news agency, federal prosecutor Leandro Mitidieri has said that investigations previously focused around legacy projects will now include ‘contracts for services, security, everything that used federal funds’. Federal authorities are reportedly already investigating the expansion of Rio de Janeiro’s metro line for the Olympics, the restoration of the Porto Maravilha area and whether the Rio de Janeiro state water utility company Cedae ‘committed environmental crimes’.

 

• Police in New South Wales, Australia, have reportedly issuedconsorting warnings’ to three National Rugby League (NRL) players after they were pictured dining with a former crime gang boss and an accused fraudster and money launderer. Under section 93x of the Crimes Act 1900 a person can be charged with consorting if they ‘habitually consort’ with convicted offenders. The CEO of Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL) has issued a statement in response warning the NRL players Corey Norman, Junior Paulo and James Segeyaro, to take the police warnings ‘very seriously’. In a separate incident, Norman, who plays for Parramatta Eels, has been ordered to attend court after allegedly being caught with MDMA capsules and muscle relaxants at a casino on Friday night, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

 

Travis Tygart, the CEO of United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), has said that ‘the entire Russian delegation should be barred not only from the 2016 Olympic Games but from international competition indefinitely’ if the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is prevented by Russian authorities from investigating systemic doping allegations at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. In an op-ed piece for The New York Times, Tygart reiterated his opposition to the Russian track and field federation participating at this year’s Rio Olympics.

 

Klubi Futbollistik Skënderbeu Korçë, a professional football club from Albania, have issued a statement saying that UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations, is investigating match-fixing allegations at the club. According to the club, UEFA is investigating three matches in the Albanian Superliga, as well as those in European cups. KF Skënderbeu, who won their sixth national title in succession earlier this year, said that the investigation had been launched after information received from betting companies as well as allegations on social media and in the written press.

 

• An Italian match-fixing investigation into an alleged Serie B match-fixing ring has been expanded to the country’s top tier football league, Serie A, La Repubblica reports. Earlier this week the Associated Press reported that ‘ten members of the Camorra crime syndicate’ had been arrested and three soccer players placed under investigation following allegations of match-fixing at two matches played by Serie B football club Avellino. CasinoUSA.com Reports & According to the latest reports, a dossier prepared by bookmakers showing evidence of ‘abnormal movements’ in the betting market earlier this year is being sent to the ‘competent authorities’.

 

• The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is to publicly report positive tests by tennis players when the results arise, instead of wait for the outcome of a hearing before an independent tribunal, according to The Telegraph. In an interview with the newspaper, Dave Haggerty said that the ITF would make any ‘provisional suspensions known at the time’, and that the change in policy might be implemented as soon as ‘after Wimbledon’. The move follows many tennis players withdrawing from tournaments, allegedly for injuries but in reality because they had been banned for positive tests.

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