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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb...tch-fixing

Sumo wrestling hit by match-fixing scandal

Japan's national sport suffers latest in string of controversies as police find evidence of rigged bouts in wrestlers' text messages

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 February 2011 09.32 GMT


Revelations of match-fixing in sumo wrestling come in the wake of scandals over drug use, gambling and physical abuse. Photograph: Ronen Zilberman/AP

The ancient sport of sumo wrestling was today bracing itself for a fresh assault on its reputation, after police said they had found evidence of match-fixing on several wrestlers' mobile phones.

Japanese media reports said the text messages showed the wrestlers had gone as far as agreeing which winning moves would be used during bouts, and how the losing opponent should fall.

The messages were found on phones belonging to wrestlers in sumo's second division, the Kyodo news agency said. The phones had been confiscated during an investigation into allegations of illegal gambling involving scores of wrestlers that surfaced last year.

They suggested that match-fixing was common in the 2,000-year-old sport, with hundreds of thousands of yen resting on the outcome of a single bout.

The Japan sumo association summoned one elder and nine wrestlers, including three from the top division, to an emergency meeting to discuss the allegations.

"We are examining the situation," the association's chairman, Hanaregoma, said.

Reports suggested the police would not take action against the wrestlers, as match-fixing is not illegal and there was no evidence that anyone had bet on the predetermined bouts.

Match-fixing is the latest in a line of scandals to have tarnished the reputation of sumo, whose exponents are expected to display sportsmanship inside the ring, and dignity and humility outside it.

Several wrestlers have been arrested for betting on professional baseball games, which exposed the sport's close ties to organised crime groups whose members allegedly acted as bookmakers.

Kotomitsuki, a former champion, was expelled from the sport after he admitted paying off a yakuza, or mafia member, who had threatened to expose his gambling habit. More than 60 other wrestlers admitted betting on baseball, golf, cards or mahjong.

It also emerged that coveted ringside tickets usually reserved for fans and corporate sponsors had found their way into the hands of senior members of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's most powerful crime syndicate.

The crime bosses had reportedly wanted to be visible on TV broadcasts to boost the morale of fellow gangsters watching the tournament from their prison cells.

Public broadcaster NHK registered its disgust by refusing to show live coverage of last year's summer tournament. Six tournaments, each lasting 15 days, are held every year, generating ¥8.5bn (£65m) in revenue.

The malaise has spread to the very top of the sport. Asashoryu, a Mongolian-born grand champion considered by many to be the finest wrestler of his generation, was forced to retire last year after assaulting a man outside a Tokyo nightclub.

The previous year, several wrestlers were expelled following revelations of widespread marijuana use, and in 2007 the sport's guardians were urged to address allegations of systematic physical abuse following the death of a 17-year-old trainee. The teenager died after being beaten by three colleagues as punishment for attempting to abscond from his stable. His coach was sentenced to six years in prison for ordering the attack.

This is not the first time sumo has had to contend with match-fixing claims, but they have never been investigated amid denials of any impropriety by the sport's governing body.

Potential whistleblowers may have been deterred by the supreme court's decision last year to order the publisher Kodansha to pay ¥44m in damages to the association and three retired wrestlers who had been cited in match-fixing claims made in a magazine article.