umo: JSA moves to kick out Kotomitsuki, Nagoya meet to be held+

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TOKYO, June 28 Kyodo -
An executive board of the Japan Sumo Association decided Monday to move to kick
out ozeki Kotomitsuki from sumo -- one of the central players of a baseball
gambling ring rocking the Japanese national sport.
The JSA accepted recommendations the same day from a special oversight panel
investigating illegal gambling in the sport and said it will go ahead with the
Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament scheduled to begin on July 11, adhering to the
conditions requested by the panel.
Rankings for the Nagoya meet, which were supposed to have been released on
Monday, will be announced on July 5.
Kotomitsuki and stablemaster Otake, who has admitted to borrowing 20 to 30
million yen from the ozeki as the latter was hobbled in debt, could both
receive the most severe sentence of expulsion without severance pay when top
ranking sumo officials vote on the matter in a JSA board meeting on July 4.
Earlier on Monday, Otake said that 5 million yen in winnings that Kotomitsuki
requested from an intermediary was money he himself had won from gambling on
baseball, the sources said.
Shigeru Ito, a Waseda University professor who heads the third-party oversight
panel, spoke of the punishments of Kotomitsuki and Otake at a press conference.
Stablemaster Tokitsukaze, another to admit to gambling on baseball, could be
demoted or receive a harsher punishment.
The JSA's investigative panel said it will make its recommendation to put in a
substitute for JSA Chairman Musashigawa, who faces possible suspension, on
Friday.
Sources in the JSA said that the panel is set to name Hiroyoshi Murayama,
former Tokyo High Prosecutors Office chief who is now a board member outside
the JSA, as Musashigawa's substitute if the JSA decides to suspend him.
''We stirred this huge controversy,'' Musashigawa said. ''We accept the
investigative panel's proposals sincerely. Kotomitsuki cannot avoid a severe
sentence because he lied before our board of directors.''
The JSA said concrete penalties of all wrestlers and sumo elders implicated in
the gambling ring will be decided at a JSA board meeting on July 4.
Nine conditions have been laid out by the special oversight panel to be met in
order to hold the 15-day Nagoya basho.
The 42-year-old Otake, whose ring name was Takatoriki, tendered his resignation
to the JSA the same day but sumo's governing body did not accept it.
The panel is asking that more than a dozen wrestlers who gambled on baseball be
suspended for the Nagoya meet. Eleven sumo elders, including four members of
the JSA board, are also on the list for suspensions.
The gambling scandal came to light on May 19 when it was reported in a weekly
magazine that ozeki Kotomitsuki was in heavy debt from gambling and was
blackmailed to pay 100 million in hush money.
He initially denied his involvement in questioning by police and the JSA but
later admitted to the allegations. A former gangster has admitted to extorting
3.5 million yen from Kotomitsuki.
At least 31 have admitted to gambling on baseball, while 36 others said in a
recent JSA survey that they had taken part in other betting activities, such as
on games of mahjong and ''hanafuda'' Japanese card playing games.
The JSA accepted Kotomitsuki's decision to withdraw from the Nagoya meet
earlier this month.
==Kyodo
2010-06-28 23:02:20


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