The Sordid World of Sumo Wrestling
Sumo Wrestling is an ancient form of martial arts that has been practised in Japan for centuries. Over the last few years though some very dodgy cases have been unearthed that have put a black mark on the entire sport. Sumo is in tradition and is supposed to be governed by the highest ethical standards and moral codes. These recent stains have shown that all is not well in the world of Sumo.
Quite a few scandals have rocked the world of Sumo in the last few years. From drug charges, to match fixing, to Mafia connections, to even second degree murder, the sport of Sumo is in a serious state at the moment. The first few scandals to hit the sport were unearthed in the 1990s by two men who wrote a book about the whole thing. They were mysteriously found dead a month after the book was published. The book laid bare the illegal practises taking place in the sport. The book accused the players and coaches of tax evasion, match fixing and ties with the Japanese Mafia; the Yakuza.
Match fixing is also a huge problem in the sport. It is claimed that almost half of all bouts in top levels of competition were rigged. Wrestlers were paid huge amounts of money in order to take a fall and because of the close knit structure of the sport and the fact that it is supposedly very well governed, the truth was well hidden. This fact put the whole sport in jeopardy because if a sport has half of all matches being fixed then there is no fairness and nothing entertaining that remains in the sport it solely becomes a money making machine then.
The training sessions that young wrestlers have to endure are extremely harsh and can lead to injuries and in very rare cases even death. In 2008, a coach and three wrestlers were arrested and charged for their involvement in the death of a 17 year old Sumo wrestler. The case was that the coach had ordered the three wrestlers to beat the young boy because he had tried to run away from the sport. He later died of his injuries. This shows us that the training regime that the young wrestlers have to follow can sometimes get so severe that it can even lead to death.
The biggest scandal in recent times in Sumo Wrestling has been a drug related one. First a Russian Sumo grandmaster was caught with marijuana and was banned from life from the sport. Then later two more Russian wrestlers tested positive for having taken marijuana and were also banned from the sport. This scandal led to many resignations and an overhaul of the drug testing system in the sport.
The latest problem that the Sumo world has to deal with was unearthed a few days ago and involved illegal betting practises. The strange part of this story is that it was not betting in Sumo but in other sports in Japan. It turned out that many wrestlers and coaches were involved in illegal betting on baseball, card games, Mahjong and other popular Japanese games. It was found that the wrestlers and coaches had links to criminal organisations and the underworld and all the betting happened through illegal means. A top wrestler and his coach were both banned from the sport when their involvement was found out. The scandal was so large that the national broadcaster, that has shown Sumo tournaments on its network for the last 50 years, has for the first time declined to show any Sumo matches. This latest case forced the governing body of the sport to take a step back and reassess what was needed to be done in order to fix the situation. They decided to overhaul the entire system and put in place very strict rules against betting.
Even though Sumo is supposedly one of the more ethical sports out there, so many scandals have been found out in recent years that the entire sport is in decline. Japan has a falling population and not too many people are interested in the sport any more. Hopefully the sport will be able to get cleaned up and the fans can go back to enjoying a great sport that has ancient Japanese origins.
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