ID :
160961
Mon, 02/14/2011 - 17:32
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Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/160961
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Sumo: Sumo association to set up match-fixing watchdog panel
TOKYO, Feb. 14 Kyodo - The Japan Sumo Association said on Monday it will form a watchdog panel specifically to prevent the recurrence of match fixing to address the biggest scandal in the history of the ancient sport.
Members of the watchdog panel, which will consist of five sumo coaches and three people from outside the sumo world, will be selected at a later a date, it was decided at an emergency board meeting at Ryogoku Kokugikan the same day.
A special investigative team looking into the recent match-fixing scandal that has implicated 14 people, made its second report to the JSA board, but said it had not yet uncovered all the facts.
Hence, the punishments for juryo wrestlers Chiyohakuho and Kiyoseumi, sumo elder Takenawa and lower-division wrestler Enatsukasa, each of whom has either confessed or been incriminated in rigging bouts, have been postponed.
The special investigative panel wrapped up a report on hearings of 78 wrestlers who were in the juryo division or above since the 2009 Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament.
Shigeru Ito, who heads the panel and holds a special position at Waseda University, said in a press conference following the JSA meeting, ''We did not receive any suspicious answers from the 78 people questioned (aside from the 14 under investigation).''
Ito said the questioning of the 14 who have been implicated in match fixing would continue, but that there are currently no further interviews planned for the 78 questioned last week.
He said, however, that six people who answered a survey directed at JSA members said that they had heard rumors of match fixing in the past. The panel plans to question the unnamed six.
The JSA board also approved establishing a hotline for JSA members in order to seek more information on match fixing.
Members of the watchdog panel, which will consist of five sumo coaches and three people from outside the sumo world, will be selected at a later a date, it was decided at an emergency board meeting at Ryogoku Kokugikan the same day.
A special investigative team looking into the recent match-fixing scandal that has implicated 14 people, made its second report to the JSA board, but said it had not yet uncovered all the facts.
Hence, the punishments for juryo wrestlers Chiyohakuho and Kiyoseumi, sumo elder Takenawa and lower-division wrestler Enatsukasa, each of whom has either confessed or been incriminated in rigging bouts, have been postponed.
The special investigative panel wrapped up a report on hearings of 78 wrestlers who were in the juryo division or above since the 2009 Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament.
Shigeru Ito, who heads the panel and holds a special position at Waseda University, said in a press conference following the JSA meeting, ''We did not receive any suspicious answers from the 78 people questioned (aside from the 14 under investigation).''
Ito said the questioning of the 14 who have been implicated in match fixing would continue, but that there are currently no further interviews planned for the 78 questioned last week.
He said, however, that six people who answered a survey directed at JSA members said that they had heard rumors of match fixing in the past. The panel plans to question the unnamed six.
The JSA board also approved establishing a hotline for JSA members in order to seek more information on match fixing.
