Federbet, the betting monitoring organisation, has come in for some flak over the years, but increasingly its findings are being vindicated. The Sports Integrity Initiative interviewed Federbet’s General Secretary, Francesco Baranca, who is bullish about its prospects, and unrelenting in its defence.
The anti-corruption tsar explains why he’s the man to lead the energetic anti-corruption organisation operating from Qatar.
Michael Hershman boasts a résumé that reads like an anti-corruption instruction manual. If there was ever anyone born to lead the fight against corruption, Hershman’s achievements suggest he’s it. A former US Military counter-intelligence officer, he served on the Senate Watergate Committee which investigated the world’s most notorious cover-up, before helping co-found the global anti-corruption think-tank, Transparency International. His achievement list is long and plentiful.
Police in New South Wales, Australia, are investigating allegations of match-fixing in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph reports.
The investigation reportedly concerns two games in 2015 involving Manly Sea Eagles – one against South Sydney Rabbitohs and the other against Parramatta Eels. All three clubs are based in Sydney.
Regular updates of the Chris Cairns perjury trial, October – November 2015
Chris Cairns was found not guilty of all charges
“To err is human; to forgive, divine.” These days Alexander Pope’s oft-quoted quip is applied to all manner of situations; its relevance is universal. Martin Luther-King applied the sentiment to the civil rights movement, as did Nelson Mandela, to an extraordinary degree. Forgiveness is central to most, if not all, religious texts too – the Bible and the Quran to name but two. However there are some acts, or crimes, where forgiveness appear that much harder, where the label is worn by the perpetrator indefinitely.
Detective Chief Superintendent, Chair of the Darts Regulation Authority (DRA), Vice Chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), Special Member of Sport Resolutions UK’s Panel of Arbitrators. Nigel Mawer’s past and current accolades are a mouthful in themselves. Now retired from the police, Mawer, a one-man crime combating champion, continues to devote his knowledge and expertise to the cause, but now channels his skills towards the sports industry. A heavyweight in the world of sports regulation, the Sports Integrity Initiative interviewed Mawer to talk about all things match-fixing, both in snooker, darts and beyond.
Yesterday the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed that sanctions against Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt will expire at midnight on 1 September 2015. The ICC announced that the two cricketers, who were convicted alongside their Pakistani team-mate Mohammad Amir for their roles in spot-fixing during the England vs. Pakistan Lord’s Test in August 2010, would be eligible to return to competitive cricket after ‘fulfilling the specific conditions’ laid down by the independent Anti-Corruption Tribunal in February 2011.
Gerard Elias QC’s role as Chairman of the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is one that has seen him oversee issues that have varied from players’ spitting on the pitch through to racism allegations and corruption of the sport. Appointed as the CDC’s chairman in 1996, it’s a role he’s held for almost twenty years; even he concedes that such a term is too long. Appointed a QC in 1984, Elias is also a former Chairman of Glamorgan County Cricket Club and has chaired Disciplinary Tribunals for many other sports including the Welsh Rugby Union.
The 16 suspects accused of fixing a top tier handball match between French sides Montpellier and Cesson in May 2012 have been found guilty for their involvement in or involvement in illegal betting according to Le Monde. Amongst those convicted are the French handball star, Nikola Karabatic, and his younger brother Luka Karabatic. On Friday the Criminal Court of Montpellier reportedly ordered Nikola Karabatic to pay a fine of €10,000. According to reports the prosecutor had requested a three-month suspended sentence and €30,000 fine.
The former Pakistan cricket captain, Salman Butt, has signed a written statement specifically confessing to spot-fixing. In the statement, which was published by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Butt admits that he was ‘guilty of breaching the International Cricket Council (ICC) Anti-Corruption Code in the manner found by the Anti-Corruption Tribunal’ and admits specifically to being a ‘party to the bowling of two deliberate no balls in the Lord’s test match.’
Isabelle Westbury 