“There ought to be a suspension on sports betting in this country”, says independent Senator Nick Xenophon.
It comes as Australian sport has had one of its darkest weeks, with an Australian Crime Commission (ACC) investigation identifying widespread use of illegal drugs by clubs and athletes that in some cases was sponsored by organised crime and eventually led to match fixing.
“The revelations contained in the ACC report are so grave, are so serious, that a number of measures must be implemented to ensure the integrity of our sporting codes,” Senator Xenaphon said.
“And unless and until those measures are implemented, there ought to be a suspension on sports betting in this country.”
Reports show that a particular A-league match is being investigated by authorities for fixing. The match in question allegedly attracted wagers of more than $40 million from Asian punters with Hong Kong betting agencies.
It attracted more gambling interest than a major British Premier League game held in the same week.
The Football Federation Australia had been quick to distance itself from the ACC findings this week, especially for match fixing allegations.
CEO David Gallop declared there is no evidence of player doping or match fixing but that the game’s administrators remained vigilant.
“There’s nothing specific in relation to football,” he said.
“We are not specifically targeted in this report”.
Melbourne Victory coach, Ange Postecoglou was more open on the issue and believes the A-league is always vulnerable to match fixing.
“We’re talking about money. It can corrupt the most stable of environments,” he said.
Postecoglou believes there was no reason why match-fixing would be less likely to happen in Australia than anywhere else.
On the other hand, interim Adelaide United coach, Michael Valkanis backed up Gallops’ theory, but didn’t deny there was a problem with the issue of match fixing and football. He points to his time playing in the Greek Super League, where he encountered discussions of match fixing.
“Overseas it was obviously a problem, even in Greece, in those sorts of countries, but here, no,” he says.
“It was one of the reasons why in the end I decided (to) come back. I had enough of that sort of stuff and hearing what could be happening behind the scenes.
“It’s just not sport, that’s not why you play sport – you play sport to win.”
Football hasn’t had the best couple of weeks, with the European Union Law enforcement agency Europol identifying over 700 matches that could have been fixed. (For more turn to page 31 of sport)
Ange Postecoglou also mentioned that the constant pressure to improve and be at a person’s best might push athletes to seek performance enhancing drugs.
He assured that he had seen nothing suspicious during his career but constant vigilance was needed.
“Even the strongest, it comes down to dealing with human beings and if people want to find loopholes they’ll find loopholes in everything,” he said.
Police are now pursuing evidence that some coaches, sports scientists and support staff at clubs have orchestrated or condoned the use of banned drugs and that organised crime figures distributed the drugs.
In Victoria, Police are setting up a sports integrity unit to battle the state’s sport connections to criminal networks and match fixing.
At the start of the week, Essendon Football club admitted it had concerns about performance enhancing drugs. Allegations have also surfaced pertaining to other clubs, tarnishing the AFL’s consistently clean image.
AFL Chief, Andrew Demetriou has vowed to increase resources to combat a new generation of performance enhancing drugs known as peptides.
AFL clubs will also have their staff audited, sport science staff registered and be instructed to provide mandatory reporting of any doping issue.
Demetriou says he is working closely with Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority to create better and more advanced drug testing systems to stay on top of scientists who are pushing the envelope.
“If you are out there and you think you can run the gauntlet in cheating in this system … make no mistake you will be caught,” Mr Demetriou said.
“Today is the day we draw a line in the sand and collectively we address and tackle (drugs in sport because) sport is too important in this community.”
For more on the AFL scandal, read Fiv Antoniou’s “Essendon face drugs probe” in Sport.