Showing posts with label Daily Mail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daily Mail. Show all posts

Friday, 29 January 2016

Seb Coe Faces More Questions


IAAF president Lord Coe has denied a report he alerted UK Athletics (UKA) to allegations of bribes before the vote for the 2017 World Championships.

UKA boss Ed Warner said he was warned by a "very senior IAAF person" about envelopes of cash being handed out before the vote, which London won.

The Daily Mail claims two witnesses recall Coe warning the bid team.

Coe has repeatedly denied he knew about major corruption within athletics during his time as IAAF vice-president.

Now, following the latest accusations, the IAAF has been forced to issue a statement insisting Coe, who became president in August last year, had "no knowledge of bribes being offered or received".

The IAAF, which governs world athletics, and a number of its key officials have come under fire for their governance of the sport.

An independent World Anti Doping-Agency report recently claimed that "corruption was embedded" within the organisation.

The report's authors also suggested the bidding process for the World Championships should be investigated.

Coe led London's final presentation bid before it beat Doha in a 2011 vote for the right to host the 2017 championships.

The Qatari capital was subsequently awarded the 2019 event.

The Qatar Athletics Federation has always denied any wrongdoing during the voting process, but Warner told British MPS this week that the IAAF's ethics commission is looking into both Doha bids.

French prosecutors are already investigating the decision to award the 2021 World Championships to Eugene, Oregon.

The town, which has strong associations with sportswear giant Nike, for whom Coe was a paid ambassador until last month, appears to have been awarded the rights to stage the event without a full bidding process.


Wednesday, 20 January 2016

Tennis Integrity Calls on Players


The Tennis Integrity Unit has called for any players who have concerns over possible match-fixing to come forward, reaffirming there is no evidence of anyone suppressing reports.

An investigation carried out by the BBC and BuzzFeed alleges that over the last decade a core group of 16 players have been brought to the attention of the sport’s governing bodies over suspicions they have fixed matches.

The report claims all of the 16 players have ranked in the world’s top 50 at some point and that more than half of them were playing in the Australian Open first round, which started on Monday.

Following the broadcast of the File on 4 programme ‘Tennis: Game, Set and Fix?’ on BBC Radio Four during Tuesday evening, BBC Sport later published a fresh claim from an unnamed South American tennis player in an interview with the BBC’s World Have Your Say team which detailed how matches are said to be rigged and how criminals try to avoid detection.

The male player, who requested anonymity, alleged the issues were “like a secret on the tour that everybody knows but we don’t talk about it. You know who is doing it and who is not ... We just see it and keep working.”

However, claims that the sports authorities “don’t want it to be stopped” were rejected by the TIU, which was set up in 2008.

“The TIU and the tennis authorities absolutely reject any suggestion that evidence of match-fixing has been suppressed for any reason. The sport has a zero-tolerance approach which is enforced with the full powers of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program, which includes lifetime bans and punitive financial penalties,” the organisation said in a statement.

“Since 2009 all professional players, support staff and officials have been subject to this stringent code, which makes it compulsory to report any corrupt approaches or knowledge of suspected corrupt practices to the TIU. Failure to do so is a breach of the Program which can be subject to disciplinary action.

“The TIU works closely with players to prevent corruption through education programmes and confidential reporting systems. The great majority of the 21,000 active professional players are good people of high integrity who abhor the suggestion that the sport they love is tainted with allegations of corruption.

“We invite the player behind the allegations to make contact with the TIU and to share the information he claims to have.”

It is alleged that in 2007 tennis authorities were presented with an examination of 26,000 matches, three of them at Wimbledon, which contained enough evidence to root out offenders – but no action was taken.

The BBC, meanwhile, had said the group of 16 players also included “winners of grand slam titles” but neither organisation named players, insisting it is not possible to determine whether they were personally taking part in match-fixing.

The current world No1, Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, branded match-fixing as a “crime in sport” and confirmed he was offered £110,000 in 2006 to lose a first-round match in St Petersburg.

The seven-times Wimbledon champion Roger Federer says he will believe accusations of widespread match-fixing only when the perpetrators are named. Federer answered several questions on the controversy after his first-round win over Nikoloz Basilashvili at the Australian Open on Monday but grew irritated when asked about the potential involvement of major champions.

“I would love to hear names,” the Swiss said. “Then at least it’s concrete stuff and you can actually debate about it. Was it the player? Was it the support team? Who was it? Was it before? Was it a doubles player, a singles player? Which slam? It’s so all over the place. It’s nonsense to answer something that is pure speculation.”

Andy Murray wants more “proactive” movement from the authorities. He said: “As a player, you just want to be made aware of everything that’s going on. I think we deserve to know everything that’s out there.”


Monday, 21 December 2015

Murray Walks BBC SPOTY 2015

BBC
Andy Murray has been voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year for the second time in three years.

The 2013 winner inspired Great Britain's tennis team to a first Davis Cup victory for 79 years.

Rugby league star Kevin Sinfield was runner-up, with heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill third.

Scot Murray, 28, won 361,446 of the 1,009,498 votes cast (35%), with Sinfield getting 278,353 (28%) and Ennis-Hill 78,898 (8%).

Murray was presented the award by Irish boxing legend Barry McGuigan, in front of a sell-out 7,500 crowd at the SSE Arena in Belfast.

A two-time Grand Slam winner, this year he reached the final of the Australian Open and the semi-finals of both Wimbledon and the French Open.

He finished the year second in the world rankings and won all 11 of his Davis Cup rubbers, including three in the final against Belgium.

He was also named Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2004.

"Thank you very much. I didn't expect this," Murray said.

"A friend sent me a message the other day with an article saying: 'Andy Murray is duller than a weekend in Worthing,' which I thought was a bit harsh - on Worthing.

"Congratulations to everyone who was involved tonight. This has been a five-year journey - we were down in the bottom level of tennis and now we're number one.

"I dedicate my life to this sport and I work extremely hard every day to make you proud."

One of the biggest cheers of the night was saved for Northern Ireland football manager Michael O'Neill, who was given a standing ovation as he was presented with the Coach of the Year award after guiding his country to Euro 2016, their first major finals for 30 years.

The winner of the Helen Rollason Award, eight-year-old Bailey Matthews, who has cerebral palsy, captured the hearts of the crowd as he asked for them to stop cheering and received another big ovation as he said a small speech.

World heavyweight champion boxer Tyson Fury, a contender for the main award, was jeered by a section of the crowd after recent remarks about women and homosexuality.

But during the show he apologised for comments he made that might have "hurt people".

The other winners in Sunday's awards ceremony were:

Overseas Sports Personality of the Year: Dan Carter
An integral part of the New Zealand team that beat Australia 34-17 to win the World Cup in October.

Young Sports Personality of the Year: Ellie Downie
The 16-year-old gymnast won bronze in the all-around at the European Championships to make her the first female gymnast to win an individual all-around medal for Great Britain.

Coach of the Year: Michael O'Neill
The Northern Ireland manager helped his country end a 30-year absence from tournament football by sealing a spot at Euro 2016 last month.

Lifetime Achievement: AP McCoy
Twenty-time champion jump jockey AP McCoy, 41, who retired in April after a record-breaking career.

Helen Rollason: Bailey Matthews
The eight-year-old, who has cerebral palsy, completed his first triathlon unaided.

Sport's Unsung Hero: Damien Lindsay 
The west Belfast youth football coach played a huge role in his local community in his work with the St James Swifts Football Club.


Tuesday, 15 September 2015

Benitez Rejects Gerrard Claims

Rafa Benitez has claimed that Steven Gerrard's criticism of him is just an attempt to sell more books.

Gerrard's latest tome My Story is being serialised in the Daily Mail, and the former Liverpool captain suggested Benitez didn't like him when they worked together at Anfield.

"I have read the quotes and I believe he is wrong," Benitez said on Spanish television.

"Out of the respect that I have for Stevie and for the value and appreciation I have for him, and for Liverpool and the supporters, I think it's best to just let it pass.

"He has brought out a book and now I'm the Real Madrid manager, that sells."

In the new book Gerrard reveals that when he first met Benitez, the Spaniard bluntly asked his mother, "Does Stevie like money?".

Gerrard was unimpressed and reveals in the book that: "I can pick up the phone and speak to all of my previous Liverpool managers. Except for Rafa."

The serialisation includes numerous revelations, including that Spurs were in for Gerrard when he left Liverpool last season, and the former Anfield skipper suggesting Philippe Coutinho will be tapped up by Real Madrid or Barcelona.