Olympic chiefs to get tough on illegal betting

International Olympic chiefs have declared their intention to join the fight against illegal betting on sports events.

The IOC is likely to set up an early-warning system with leading betting companies so they can be alerted quickly when unusual gambling patterns happen around sports events.

IOC president Jacques Rogge said, if necessary, the system would be set up before the Beijing Olympics next summer, but there would first be a meeting about the issue with international sporting federations.

FIFA, UEFA, the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) already have early-warning systems in place.

Lord Cordon, the ICC’s anti-corruption chief, briefed the IOC’s executive board on their latest strategy this morning – but does not believe the Olympics were not a particularly high-risk event.

Rogge told a news conference afterwards the IOC would take steps.

He said: “I am not speaking about a threat for any particular Games, but for sport in general this is something we have to address.

“Bona fide betting companies can give us early warning by looking at the betting patterns, and then we can act upon it.

“We will hold a seminar involving the international federations and national Olympic committees to form our strategy.

“I would not go as far as to say we need an organisation like WADA [the World Anti-Doping Agency], because that is very structured between sports and governments. But there is a strong possibility of developing a relationship with a betting company, and if necessary we will introduce that before the next Games.”

There have been a number of claims in tennis of match-fixing – while earlier this month UEFA passed to police details of a number of European football matches, where there were suspicious betting patterns.

Meanwhile, American sprinter Marion Jones has been formally stripped of her five Olympic medals. But the IOC have postponed a decision on whether her relay team-mates will lose their medals.

Jones has already handed back the three gold and two bronze medals she won at the Sydney Games in 2000, after admitting she had used performance-enhancing drugs.

The IOC’s executive board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, today confirmed her name will be removed from the record books for Sydney and also from Athens in 2004 – where she competed in the long jump.

IOC president Jacques Rogge said a hearing will be set up to decide whether the rest of Jones’ relay team should also lose their medals – something that looks certain, because the US Olympic Committee have said they will not back the athletes’ claims to keep them.

Jones won gold in the 4x400m relay and bronze in the 4x100m.

Rogge added that no decision will be taken on upgrading other athletes’ medals until the full report has been received into the BALCO scandal in the USA that led to Jones’ cheating being uncovered.

Rogge said: “The issue of Ms Jones has been very damaging, but it is a good thing for the fight against doping. The more athletes we catch, the more credibility we have.

“We will not re-distribute any of the other rankings until after the review of the BALCO case, because other names may well come out.”