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Sumo wrestlers admit match-fixing: minister
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Sumo wrestlers admit match-fixing: minister
AFP - 54 minutes ago
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TOKYO (AFP) - – At least three sumo wrestlers have for the first time admitted fixing matches in the latest scandal to hit the ancient sport's tarnished image, Japan's sport minister told a parliamentary panel.
Allegations that more than a dozen sumo wrestlers have traded wins or fixed fights during tournaments have rocked Japan, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan calling it an "act of betrayal" if found to be true.
Bout-rigging claims have long stalked the sport, which has its roots in Japan's native Shinto religion and dates back some 1,500 years, but there has never previously been any official confession from the sumo world.
Kan's comments follow Japanese media reports that Tokyo police uncovered text messages from the cellphones of sumo wrestlers that implied they were fixing bouts.
Japanese education and sport minister Yoshiaki Takaki, who oversees the sumo industry, said the head of the Japan Sumo Association had informed his ministry that three wrestlers had confessed to fixing results.
The revelation came a day after sumo association chairman Hanaregoma, who goes by one name, apologised over claims that fighters had colluded, but stopped short of confirming the allegations.
"If there really was bout-fixing, it would be a grave act of betrayal against Japanese people," Kan told a parliamentary panel on Thursday, adding that the government had urged the sumo association to launch an investigation.
On Wednesday Japanese media reported that police had uncovered text messages on cellphones confiscated last year in a probe into illegal gambling. The messages implied many wrestlers ranked in the lower "juryo" class were fixing fights.
The Yomiuri newspaper said many juryo wrestlers are reportedly involved in the bout-rigging. Theirs is the lowest-paid rank in the sport with monthly salaries of around one million yen ($12,300), while wrestlers ranked a notch lower are not paid.
The bout-rigging was likely a "mutual aid circle" for wrestlers who shared wins to ensure they were not relegated to a lower rank, the newspaper said.
The new allegations are the latest controversy to hit the cloistered world of a ritualistic male-only event in which contestants toss salt to purify the ring before fights.
The scandal has further shaken a nation that has seen the sport's image collapse following revelations of drug use, extortion and the 2007 death of a trainee who died after being bullied and subjected to violent initiation rites.
"I have to question if sumo is only a show or a serious sport," said sumo fan Kazuo Shikata, 66, outside Ryogoku Kokugikan stadium in Tokyo. "I hope sumo wrestlers ranked higher are not involved."
Another fan, 72-year-old Ruriko Wada, said this might be only the tip of the iceberg.
"I would like to keep supporting sumo, but I don't know how much more I can believe in it."
Last year, scores of sumo wrestlers, who are expected to act as role models in Japan, admitted to betting illegally on baseball games in gambling organised by bookmakers linked to organised crime.
Betting in Japan is permitted only on horse racing, cycling and certain motor sports.
The sport's ties with organised crime and revelations of widespread illegal gambling plunged sumo into deep crisis last year, leading big-name sponsors to withdraw and the broadcaster NHK to boycott a national tournament in July.
It also emerged that top members of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's biggest crime syndicate, were given ringside seats at sumo tournaments that allowed them to send messages to jailed gangsters via NHK broadcasts seen in prisons.
Tokyo police last week arrested three former sumo wrestlers and the mother of one of them on suspicion of illegally organising baseball gambling and collecting money in bets from sumo wrestlers in 2009 and 2010.
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