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159019
Sat, 02/05/2011 - 17:33
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https://www.oananews.org//node/159019
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Sumo: Bout-rigging probe offers few answers, JSA scrapping spring meet
TOKYO, Feb. 5 Kyodo - A special inquiry panel of the Japan Sumo Association investigating bout rigging said on Saturday it will present its findings to a board meeting the following day, just hours after sumo's governing body decided it will cancel next month's Spring Grand Sumo Tournament due to an earthshaking scandal.
There was no fresh information provided after the panel met for nearly two hours to discuss what is arguably becoming the biggest crisis ever in the ancient sport since 14 people were implicated in match fixing in text messages found by police on mobile phones.
''We will give a report after speaking to the board (on Sunday). It will take at least another two months (to search cellphone records),'' said inquiry head Shigeru Ito, adding that three of the 14 have admitted to the charges -- a fact which had already been reported.
The 15-day spring tournament in Osaka was scheduled to begin on March 13, but the JSA plans to formally announce its decision to cancel the basho at an emergency board meeting on Sunday, sources said.
The JSA took the move to cancel the spring meet as the ongoing investigation will likely take longer than expected while the national sport is facing a public-relations nightmare.
''If we go ahead with the tournament under current circumstances, it will just create more turmoil and trouble for everyone, '' a JSA board member said.
''The JSA executives made the call. Even the summer tournament could be in doubt depending on the outcome of the investigations.''
It is the first time ever that the JSA will cancel a tournament because of a scandal. The summer meet of 1946 was scrapped but that was due to a delay in renovation work at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, which had been damaged during World War II.
Chiyohakuho, one of two active wrestlers who admitted to a JSA board to fixing matches in high-profile tournaments, offered to quit the sport Thursday.
Chiyohakuho, Enatsukasa and sumo elder Takenawa, who was known as Kasuganishiki while in the ring, have all admitted to their involvement in the bout rigging and are likely to be dismissed without severance pay.
The special investigative panel took a survey of nearly 1,000 people, or all of the JSA members, about rigging bouts, but Ito suggested that none of those questioned have admitted to swapping wins for cash.
Ito, who has a special position at Waseda University, said the panel will continue to question the 14 under suspicion and plans to hold another meeting 10 days later.
Juryo-division wrestler Kisenoumi and others of the 14 who have denied the allegations, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, could likely be forced into retirement.
News of the scandal broke Wednesday when police investigating illegal gambling on pro baseball in sumo circles last year discovered a number of cellphone text messages implying bouts had been thrown.
Thirteen people were initially implicated in the scandal although further JSA investigations revealed an additional person may have taken part in the match fixing, bringing the total to 14.
An independent special investigative panel was brought in to question the 14 involved and it also asked them to voluntarily turn in their cellphones and bank books for further investigations.
Match-rigging claims are nothing new in sumo but until now there have never been any public admissions from wrestlers still active in the sumo world.
In 2000, Keisuke Itai, a former komusubi who wrestled under the name Itai, said he had been involved in rigging bouts during a 12-year career lasting from 1978 to 1991, which he said coincided with ''the worst period for match fixing in the history of sumo.''
Itai, who had made his allegations public in a series of interviews in the tabloid style magazine Shukan Gendai, said, ''From 1984 to 1991, sometimes as few as two bouts out of 30 were legitimate.''
In 1996, Itai's former stablemaster Onaruto famously opened a can of worms by alleging in the ''Shukan Post'' that sumo, a centuries-old sport steeped in tradition and an almost feudalistic moral code, was rife with fixed bouts, tax evasion, underworld connections, drugs and orgies.
At the time, the JSA dismissed the accusations as ''scurrilous lies,'' but the plot thickened when Onaruto and another sumo insider, who also contributed to the magazine article, died -- within hours of each other -- on April 14, 1996.
Sumo has been hit by a spate of scandals that have badly damaged the sport's image in recent years.
Last year former ozeki Kotomitsuki and several other wrestlers were kicked out of the sport while others were suspended or demoted after admitting involvement in an illegal gambling ring.
Asashoryu, a former yokozuna great, was forced to retire last year after assaulting a man outside a Tokyo nightclub, while a number of wrestlers were expelled for marijuana use in 2009.
Sumo was also ordered to crack down on widespread abuse of young trainees after a 17-year-old wrestler died after being subjected to violent initiation rites by three colleagues in 2007.
There was no fresh information provided after the panel met for nearly two hours to discuss what is arguably becoming the biggest crisis ever in the ancient sport since 14 people were implicated in match fixing in text messages found by police on mobile phones.
''We will give a report after speaking to the board (on Sunday). It will take at least another two months (to search cellphone records),'' said inquiry head Shigeru Ito, adding that three of the 14 have admitted to the charges -- a fact which had already been reported.
The 15-day spring tournament in Osaka was scheduled to begin on March 13, but the JSA plans to formally announce its decision to cancel the basho at an emergency board meeting on Sunday, sources said.
The JSA took the move to cancel the spring meet as the ongoing investigation will likely take longer than expected while the national sport is facing a public-relations nightmare.
''If we go ahead with the tournament under current circumstances, it will just create more turmoil and trouble for everyone, '' a JSA board member said.
''The JSA executives made the call. Even the summer tournament could be in doubt depending on the outcome of the investigations.''
It is the first time ever that the JSA will cancel a tournament because of a scandal. The summer meet of 1946 was scrapped but that was due to a delay in renovation work at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, which had been damaged during World War II.
Chiyohakuho, one of two active wrestlers who admitted to a JSA board to fixing matches in high-profile tournaments, offered to quit the sport Thursday.
Chiyohakuho, Enatsukasa and sumo elder Takenawa, who was known as Kasuganishiki while in the ring, have all admitted to their involvement in the bout rigging and are likely to be dismissed without severance pay.
The special investigative panel took a survey of nearly 1,000 people, or all of the JSA members, about rigging bouts, but Ito suggested that none of those questioned have admitted to swapping wins for cash.
Ito, who has a special position at Waseda University, said the panel will continue to question the 14 under suspicion and plans to hold another meeting 10 days later.
Juryo-division wrestler Kisenoumi and others of the 14 who have denied the allegations, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, could likely be forced into retirement.
News of the scandal broke Wednesday when police investigating illegal gambling on pro baseball in sumo circles last year discovered a number of cellphone text messages implying bouts had been thrown.
Thirteen people were initially implicated in the scandal although further JSA investigations revealed an additional person may have taken part in the match fixing, bringing the total to 14.
An independent special investigative panel was brought in to question the 14 involved and it also asked them to voluntarily turn in their cellphones and bank books for further investigations.
Match-rigging claims are nothing new in sumo but until now there have never been any public admissions from wrestlers still active in the sumo world.
In 2000, Keisuke Itai, a former komusubi who wrestled under the name Itai, said he had been involved in rigging bouts during a 12-year career lasting from 1978 to 1991, which he said coincided with ''the worst period for match fixing in the history of sumo.''
Itai, who had made his allegations public in a series of interviews in the tabloid style magazine Shukan Gendai, said, ''From 1984 to 1991, sometimes as few as two bouts out of 30 were legitimate.''
In 1996, Itai's former stablemaster Onaruto famously opened a can of worms by alleging in the ''Shukan Post'' that sumo, a centuries-old sport steeped in tradition and an almost feudalistic moral code, was rife with fixed bouts, tax evasion, underworld connections, drugs and orgies.
At the time, the JSA dismissed the accusations as ''scurrilous lies,'' but the plot thickened when Onaruto and another sumo insider, who also contributed to the magazine article, died -- within hours of each other -- on April 14, 1996.
Sumo has been hit by a spate of scandals that have badly damaged the sport's image in recent years.
Last year former ozeki Kotomitsuki and several other wrestlers were kicked out of the sport while others were suspended or demoted after admitting involvement in an illegal gambling ring.
Asashoryu, a former yokozuna great, was forced to retire last year after assaulting a man outside a Tokyo nightclub, while a number of wrestlers were expelled for marijuana use in 2009.
Sumo was also ordered to crack down on widespread abuse of young trainees after a 17-year-old wrestler died after being subjected to violent initiation rites by three colleagues in 2007.
