By Andrew Warshaw
October 7 – Football may be continually hit by reports of match-fixing but it is one of many sports being infiltrated by criminal gangs. David Howman, director-general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, says the problem extends across a variety of sports right across the globe.
Speaking at the Securing Sport conference in London, Howman raised eyebrows with an alarming assessment of the ethical state of world sport, a quarter of which, he said, was affected in some way by criminal activity.
“I think, now, organised crime controls at least 25% of world sport in one way or another,” Howman told some 200 delegates.
“Those guys who are distributing drugs, steroids and HGH [human growth hormone] and EPO and so on, are the same guys who are corrupting people, the same guys who are paying money to people to fix games. They’re the same bad guys.
“Now, the good guys have to prevail. Who are the good guys? Let’s get them together and make sure they can work out a plan. Because, otherwise, the bad guys are going to win.”
Howman stressed the majority of the problem lay below elite level. Asked later by reporters how he got his evidence, he replied: “The information we get comes from Interpol, it comes from the sport people who are out there now investigating things. You don’t want to believe it but if you don’t want to confront it then you’re going to find a growth.”
The New Zealander is in favour of a global body to be set up to fight match-fixing in which WADA would play a part. “It would have an arm for bribery, an arm for corruption and arm for match-fixing. Let’s look at the practicalities of it.”
But only government intervention could help solve the global scourge. “It’s simple: sport cannot do without governments,” he told delegates.
Howman also addressed the issue of the anti-doping laboratory in Rio de Janeiro which was stripped of its accredited status by WADA last year after it failed to maintain international standards and could therefore not be used for dope tests at the World Cup in Brazil, with player samples instead flown across the world to be tested.
He said WADA was watching developments closely. “The lab in Rio is doing its utmost to achieve its accreditation again and we’re monitoring and working with them on that basis.”
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