Sporting Scandal
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scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...
s.


American football scandals

*
Minnesota Vikings boat party scandal On October 6, 2005, an alleged sex party occurred on Lake Minnetonka with seventeen members of the Minnesota Vikings football team; including quarterback Daunte Culpepper, Fred Smoot, Mewelde Moore, Pat Williams, Bryant McKinnie, Nate Burleson ...
(2005) – a sex party involving several members of the
Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansio ...
of the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...
(NFL) *
National Football League player conduct controversy On April 10, 2007, the National Football League (NFL) introduced a new conduct policy to help control on and off-field behavior by its players and preserve the league's public image.Associated PressGoodell strengthens NFL player conduct policy''U ...
(2007–present) – various off the field incidents involving
American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...
athletes from the NFL, including
Adam "Pacman" Jones Adam Bernard Jones (born September 30, 1983) is a former American football cornerback and return specialist who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons, most notably with the Cincinnati Bengals. Nicknamed "Pacman", he was dra ...
, Terry "Tank" Johnson, Chris Henry,
Ben Roethlisberger Benjamin Todd Roethlisberger Sr. (; born March 2, 1982), nicknamed "Big Ben", is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He played college footbal ...
,
Ray Rice Raymell Mourice Rice (born January 22, 1987) is a former American football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for six seasons with the Baltimore Ravens. He played college football at Rutgers, where he received first ...
and
Adrian Peterson Adrian Lewis Peterson (born March 21, 1985) is an American football running back who is a free agent. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest running backs in football history. He played college football at Oklahoma, where he set t ...
, who earned suspensions as a result. *
2007 New England Patriots videotaping controversy Spygate was an incident during the National Football League's (NFL) 2007 season, when the New England Patriots were disciplined by the league for videotaping New York Jets' defensive coaches' signals from an unauthorized location during a Sep ...
(2007) – the
New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...
were disciplined for videotaping the opposing team's coach's signals. Coach
Bill Belichick William Stephen Belichick (; born April 16, 1952) is an American professional football coach who is the head coach of the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). Additionally, he exercises extensive authority over the Patr ...
was fined $500,000 and the New England Patriots were fined $250,000 and lost their 2008 1st round draft pick. *
New Orleans Saints bounty scandal The New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, formally known as "Bountygate," was an incident in which members of the New Orleans Saints team of the National Football League (NFL) were accused of paying out bonuses, or " bounties," for injuring opposing ...
(2012) – the NFL discovered that the
New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...
had operated a secret slush fund from
2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
to 2011 that paid "bounties" to defensive players for big plays during games, most controversially for injuring opponents. The scheme was allegedly organized by a number of players plus defensive coordinator
Gregg Williams Gregg Williams (born July 15, 1958) is an American football coach. He most recently served as the defensive coordinator for the New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL) from 2019 to 2020. Previously, he was head coach of the Buffal ...
, with the acquiescence of head coach
Sean Payton Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as '' Shaun/Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; ang ...
. Shortly after the investigation came to light, Williams was accused of running similar schemes while he was defensive coordinator of the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans and
Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) ...
, as well as the head coach of the
Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division ...
. The league suspended Williams indefinitely and Payton for one year and suspended the Saints' general manager and another assistant for parts of the 2012 season.
Jonathan Vilma Jonathan Polynice Vilma (born April 16, 1982) is a former American football linebacker and current Fox NFL analyst. He played college football at the University of Miami, winning a National Championship in 2001. He went on to be drafted by the ...
, a Saints player who had a major role in the scheme and reportedly offered a $10,000 bounty on
Brett Favre Brett Lorenzo Favre ( ; born October 10, 1969) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 20 seasons, primarily with the Green Bay Packers. Favre had 321 consecutive starts from 1992 to 201 ...
, was suspended for the entire season and three other players were suspended for parts of the season. However, in September 2012, an arbitrator overturned the suspensions of the players involved in the affair. Williams' suspension ultimately lasted one year. *
Deflategate Deflategate was a National Football League (NFL) controversy involving the allegation that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady ordered the deliberate deflation of footballs used in the Patriots' victory against the Indianapolis Colts d ...
(2015) – during the
AFC Championship Game The AFC Championship Game is the annual championship game of the American Football Conference (AFC) and one of the two semi-final playoff games of the National Football League (NFL), the largest professional American football league in the world. ...
, 11 of the 12 footballs under the Patriots' control during the first half were found to be inflated below the level mandated by the rulebook. The case was then closed because of the referees' failure to check the balls prior to the game.
Tom Brady Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. (born August 3, 1977) is an American football quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He spent his first 20 seasons with the New England Patriots organization, with whic ...
was suspended by the NFL for the first 4 games of the 2016 season.


Association football scandals

*
1915 British football match-fixing scandal The 1915 British football betting scandal occurred when a Football League First Division match between Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford on 2 April (Good Friday) 1915 was fixed in United's favour, with players from both sides benef ...
*
Bundesliga scandal (1965) The Bundesliga scandal of 1965 grew out of the failure of the German Football Association (''Deutsche Fußball-Bund'', DFB) to fully embrace paid professionalism, an aversion rooted in the broader history of sport in the country. Many clubs circum ...
*
1971 Bundesliga scandal The Bundesliga scandal (''der Bundesliga-Skandal'') refers to the malicious, for-profit manipulation of games in the 1970–71 German football championship season. History The manipulation of games was revealed when the president of Kickers Of ...
* 1980 Italian football scandal – a
match fixing In organized sports, match fixing is the act of playing or officiating a match with the intention of achieving a pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. There are many reasons why match fixing might take place, ...
scandal in
Italian football Football ( it, calcio ) is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italy national football team is considered to be one of the best national teams in the world. They have won the FIFA World Cup four times (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), trailing only ...
involving several major teams. *
1988 Mexico national football team scandal The Cachirules scandal was a 1988 association football scandal in which the Mexican Football Federation (FEMEXFUT) was found to have knowingly used at least four overage players (Gerardo Jiménez, José de la Fuente, José Luis Mata, and Aurelio ...
* 1989 Maracanazo of the Chilean team * 1993 French football bribery scandal – a match fixing scandal involving a
1992–93 French Division 1 Olympique de Marseille won the 1992–93 Division 1 season of the French Association Football League with 53 points but lost its title due to a bribery scandal. The club that finished second, Paris Saint Germain refused it, making it unattribut ...
match between
Olympique de Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; oc, Olimpic de Marselha, ), also known simply as Marseille or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional men's football club based in Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Founded in 1899, the club p ...
and
Valenciennes Valenciennes (, also , , ; nl, label=also Dutch, Valencijn; pcd, Valincyinnes or ; la, Valentianae) is a commune in the Nord department, Hauts-de-France, France. It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced a ...
, in which Valenciennes players were bribed by Olympique de Marseille president
Bernard Tapie Bernard Roger Tapie (; 26 January 1943 – 3 October 2021) was a French businessman, politician and occasional actor, singer, and TV host. He was Minister of City Affairs in the government of Pierre Bérégovoy. Life and career Tapie was bo ...
, through Marseille
midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
Jean-Jacques Eydelie Jean-Jacques Eydelie (born 3 February 1966) is a French former professional footballer most noted for his role in the Marseille UEFA Champions league 1993 win. Career Eydelie was born in Angoulême, Charente. A midfielder, he began his career wi ...
. It is believed that Eydelie offered three Valenciennes players (
Jorge Burruchaga Jorge Luis Burruchaga (; born 9 October 1962), nicknamed ''Burru'', is an Argentine association football coach and former professional football player. He played both as an attacking midfielder and forward and scored the winning goal in the fi ...
,
Christophe Robert Christophe Robert (born 30 March 1964) is a French former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is famous for having been involved in the bribery scandal involving Olympique de Marseille and his team US Valenciennes. He and team ...
and
Jacques Glassman Jacques Glassmann (born 22 July 1962) is a French former footballer who played as a defender. He is famous for having revealed the bribery scandal involving Olympique de Marseille and his team US Valenciennes. He and teammates Jorge Burruch ...
)
The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centur ...
250,000 to "take the foot off of the gas" in a May 20 match between the sides, so that the team would be fresh to play in the
Champions League final The UEFA Champions League is a seasonal football competition established in 1955. Prior to the 1992–93 season, the tournament was named the European Cup. The UEFA Champions League is open to the league champions of all UEFA (Union of European ...
soon after. Marseille were subsequently stripped off the 1992–93 French Division 1 title, relegated to Division 2 and handed bans from all 1993
UEFA competitions UEFA competitions (french: competitions de l'UEFA), referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur asso ...
. The
French Football Federation The French Football Federation ( FFF; french: Fédération Française de Football) is the governing body of football in France. It also includes the overseas departments (Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte and Réunion), the over ...
also suspended Eydelie, Robert and Burruchaga, whilst Tapie was replaced as club president by
Bernard Moreau Bernard ('' Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It is also a surname. The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''bern'' "bear" and ''hard'' "bra ...
. Tapie received a prison sentence of over two years, of which he served six months and received a
The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centur ...
20,000 fine, whilst Eydelie, Robert, Burruchaga and Marseille general manager
Jean-Pierre Bernès Jean-Pierre Bernès (born 1959/60) is a French football agent and former football executive. He was general manager of Olympique de Marseille from 1989 to 1994, and resigned in the aftermath of the French football bribery scandal. Bernès has ...
were all given prison sentences and fined. Eydelie's prison sentence was a suspended sentence. *
Apito Dourado The ''Apito Dourado'' ( en, Golden Whistle) affair is a sports corruption scandal in Portuguese football that first arose in 2004. Portuguese Judiciary Police (''Polícia Judiciária'') investigators named several football personalities as suspects ...
(2004) – a match fixing scandal in
Portuguese football Association football ( pt, futebol), the most popular sport in Portugal, has a long and storied history in the country, following its introduction in 1875 in cities such as Funchal, Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra by English merchants and Portugu ...
involving
FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Por ...
, Boavista, and
União de Leiria União Desportiva de Leiria, commonly known as União de Leiria (), is a Portuguese football club based in Leiria, central Portugal. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, holding home matches at Estádio Dr. M ...
. *
Bundesliga scandal (2005) In early 2005, German football was overshadowed by the discovery of a €2 million match fixing scandal centered on second division referee Robert Hoyzer, who confessed to fixing and betting on matches in the 2. Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal (German ...
– a match fixing scandal in
German football Football (or "soccer") is the most popular sport in Germany. The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund, link=no or ) is the sport's national governing body, with 6.6 million members (roughly eight percent of the popula ...
centering on disgraced referee
Robert Hoyzer In early 2005, German football was overshadowed by the discovery of a €2 million match fixing scandal centered on second division referee Robert Hoyzer, who confessed to fixing and betting on matches in the 2. Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal (German ...
. * Caso Genoa (2005) *
Brazilian football match-fixing scandal Máfia do Apito (literally ''The Whistle Mafia''), sometimes referred to as the Escândalo do Apito (''The Whistle Scandal''), was the name given by the Brazilian press to the football match-fixing scandal reported by Veja magazine on 23 Septembe ...
(2005) – a match fixing scandal involving referees in
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. *
2006 Calciopoli scandal ''Calciopoli'' () was a sports scandal in Italy's top professional association football league Serie A and to a lesser extent Serie B. Involving various clubs and numerous executives, both from the same clubs and from the main Italian football b ...
– a match fixing scandal in Italian football involving several major teams, including three of the country's four qualifiers to the
2006–07 UEFA Champions League The 2006–07 UEFA Champions League was the 15th season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since it was rebranded from the European Cup, and the 52nd season overall. The final was contested by Mila ...
. * In the
Commonwealth of Independent States Cup The Commonwealth of Independent States Cup (russian: Кубок чемпионов Содружества, Кубок Содружества, Кубок чемпионов содружества стран СНГ и Балтии) is a defunct ann ...
2006, the
Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ...
n champion
Pyunik Football Club Pyunik Yerevan ( hy, Ֆուտբոլային Ակումբ Փյունիկ Երևան, Futbolayin Akumb P’yunik Yerevan), commonly known as Pyunik (" Phoenix"), is an Armenian professional sports club based in the Kentron neighbourho ...
refused to play with an
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
i team, PFC Neftchi. The team
Pyunik Football Club Pyunik Yerevan ( hy, Ֆուտբոլային Ակումբ Փյունիկ Երևան, Futbolayin Akumb P’yunik Yerevan), commonly known as Pyunik (" Phoenix"), is an Armenian professional sports club based in the Kentron neighbourho ...
defeated the
Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * Som ...
team
Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was ...
3–1 in the quarter-final, when it already knew that in case of victory they would have to play against Neftchi. After the match, they told the referee they would not play against an Azerbaijani team and later that evening left Moscow on an airplane. The
Russian Football Union The Russian Football Union (russian: Российский Футбольный Союз, ''Rossiyskiy Futbolnyy Soyuz'' or RFS) is the official governing body of association football in the Russian Federation. With headquarters in Moscow, it org ...
gave Shakhtar Donetsk a technical victory 3–0 so they could play in the half-final instead of Pyunik, but Shakhtar Donetsk declined the offer stating that " would really want to play in the half-final, but we don't want to get there by any other way then sport". Eventually, because no one could play against Neftchi in the half-final, Neftchi were right away promoted to the final, where they defeated the Lithuanian club
Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Tra ...
4–2. *
2011 Turkish sports corruption scandal The 2011 Turkish Sports corruption scandal was an investigation about match fixing, incentive premium, bribery, establishing a criminal organization, organized crime and intimidation in Turkey's top two association football divisions, the Süper L ...
– in July 2011, as part of a major match-fixing investigation by authorities in Turkey, nearly 60 people suspected to be involved with fixing games were detained by Istanbul Police Department Organized Crime Control Bureau and then arrested by the court. In June 2014, retrial process has started for all the convicted people. *
2013 Lebanese match fixing scandal The 2013 Lebanese football match-fixing scandal was part of a worldwide FIFA investigation with the intent of cracking down on match fixing. Many players were found guilty of being bribed by betting companies to purposefully lose games, with mat ...
– in 2013,
Lebanese Lebanese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Lebanese Republic * Lebanese people The Lebanese people ( ar, الشعب اللبناني / ALA-LC: ', ) are the people inhabiting or originating from Lebanon. The term may al ...
footballers,
Ramez Dayoub Ramez Jamal Dayoub ( ar, رامز جمال ديوب; born 9 August 1984) is a Lebanese former professional footballer who played as a defender. A former Lebanon national team player, Dayoub played in Lebanon, Myanmar, Bahrain, and Malaysia, be ...
(playing for
Selangor FA Selangor Football Club ( Malay: ''Kelab Bola Sepak Selangor''), commonly referred to as Selangor F.C. is a Malaysian professional football club based in the city of Shah Alam, Selangor, that currently competes in the Malaysia Super League, th ...
) and
Mahmoud El Ali Mahmoud Mohamad El Ali ( ar, محمود محمد العلي; born 4 March 1984) is a Lebanese former professional footballer who played as a striker. El Ali represented the Lebanon national team, scoring 12 goals in 46 games, before being banne ...
(playing for
Persiba Balikpapan Persatuan Sepakbola Indonesia Balikpapan, commonly known as Persiba Balikpapan, is an professional football club based in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The club plays in Liga 2, after relegation from Liga 1 in 2017 season. The club ...
), were banned for life by the
Lebanese Football Association The Lebanese Football Association (LFA) ( ar, الاتحاد اللبناني لكرة القدم, Al-Ittiḥād Al-Lubnānī Likurat Al-Qadam; french: Fédération Libanaise de Football) is the governing body of association football in Lebanon. ...
for participating in match-fixing scandals. 22 players were investigated for this. *
2015 Greek football scandal The 2015 Greek football scandal emerged on 6 April 2015 when prosecutor Aristidis Korreas' 173-page work was revealed. Telephone tapping operated by the National Intelligence Service of Greece since 2011 has played a significant role in the case ...
– it emerged on 6 April 2015, when prosecutor Aristidis Korreas' 173-page work was revealed.
Telephone tapping Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitori ...
operated by the National Intelligence Service of Greece has played a significant role in the case. According to the prosecutor's conclusion, Olympiakos. owner
Evangelos Marinakis Evangelos Marinakis ( el, Ευάγγελος (Βαγγέλης) Μαρινάκης, born 30 July 1967) is a Greek media mogul, shipowner, lyricist and member of the Piraeus city council. He is the owner of the football clubs Olympiacos in Gr ...
along with
Greek Football Federation The Hellenic Football Federation (HFF), also known as the Greek Football Federation ( el, Ελληνική Ποδοσφαιρική Ομοσπονδία; ΕΠΟ, translit=Ellinikí Podosferikí Omospondía; EPO) is the governing body of associat ...
members Theodoros Kouridis, Aristidis Stathopoulos and Georgios Sarris were suspected of directing a criminal organization since 2011. The goal behind their scheme was to "absolutely control Greek football's fate by the methods of blackmailing and fraud". Referees, judges, football directors and chairmen were also involved in the scandal, but all defendants deny charges. Olympiakos were the champions of the
Greek Superleague The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...
at the time. *
2015 FIFA corruption case In 2015, United States federal prosecutors disclosed cases of corruption by officials and associates connected with the Fédération internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the governing body of association football, futsal and beach s ...
* 2016
United Kingdom football sexual abuse scandal A child sexual abuse scandal involving the abuse of young players at football clubs in the United Kingdom began in mid-November 2016. The revelations began when former professional footballers waived their rights to anonymity and talked publicly ...
* 2017 Rangers Tax Fraud Case. The Supreme court ruled that money paid to players, managers and directors between 2001 and 2010 was in the form of tax free loans. This totalled £47m *2018
Football Leaks Football Leaks was a leak in association football revealing "murky" financial transactions in the world of European professional football and exposes the tax tricks employed by some of the continent's biggest stars. It began with a series of in ...
- '' Der Spiegel'' and the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) network of journalists, begun publishing various articles relateding to various dirty deals relating to various dodgy deals behind Arab oil owned football clubs
Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two ...
, PSG, and Russian owned Monaco. Super League plans by current European powerhouses. Questionable dealings of football agents, Doping involving Russian and Spanish players.


Baseball scandals

*
Black Sox Scandal The Black Sox Scandal was a Major League Baseball game-fixing scandal in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for money from a gambling syndicate le ...
(1919) *
Pete Rose Peter Edward Rose Sr. (born April 14, 1941), also known by his nickname "Charlie Hustle", is an American former professional baseball player and manager. Rose played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1963 to 1986, most prominently as a membe ...
gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...
on
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...
Dowd Report The ''Dowd Report'' is the document describing the transgressions of baseball player and manager Pete Rose in betting on baseball, which precipitated his agreement to a permanent ban from the sport in the United States. The 225-page report was pre ...
(1989) *
Houston Astros sign stealing scandal The Houston Astros sign stealing scandal resulted from a series of rule violations by members of the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball (MLB), who used technology to steal signs of opposing teams during the 2017 and 2018 seasons. For yea ...
* For baseball doping scandals, see the "Doping scandals" section.


Boxing scandals

*
List of deaths due to injuries sustained in boxing The following is a list of deaths due to injuries sustained in boxing. In February 1995, it was estimated that "approximately 500 boxers have died in the ring or as a result of boxing since the Marquess of Queensberry Rules were introduced in 188 ...
* In 1967, then-undefeated World Champion Muhammad Ali was stripped of his title, and denied a boxing license for the next 3 years over his refusal to be drafted into the U.S. army. * In 1983, boxer Luis Resto was caught tampering with his gloves by removing padding and hardening his hand wraps with plaster. * In 2001, International Boxing Federation founder Robert W. "Bobby" Lee, Sr. was convicted of money laundering and tax evasion, following a three-year long investigation of racketeering and bribery at the organization. * Tampered handwraps controversy of 2009 resulting in the suspension of
Antonio Margarito Antonio Margarito Montiel (born March 18, 1978) is a Mexican-American former professional boxer who competed between 1994 and 2017. He held multiple welterweight world championships, including the WBO title from 2002 to 2007, the IBF title in ...
* Suspension of
boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...
judges at the 2016 Summer Olympics - see Boxing at the 2016 Summer Olympics#Judging


College sporting scandals

*
CCNY point shaving scandal The CCNY point-shaving scandal of 1950–51 was a college basketball point-shaving gambling scandal that involved seven American schools in all, with four in the New York metropolitan area, two in the Midwest, and one in the South. However, most ...
– in 1951, more than 30 players at seven schools were implicated in a
point shaving In organized sports, point shaving is a type of match fixing where the perpetrators try to change the final score of a game without changing who wins. This is typically done by players colluding with gamblers to prevent a team from covering a p ...
scheme that also had connections to organized crime. The scandal was most strongly linked to the
City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
because several central figures had played on the school's 1949–50 team that won that season's NCAA tournament and NIT. *
Boston College basketball The Boston College Eagles are a Division I college basketball program that represents Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. The team has competed in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) since 2005, having previously pla ...
point shaving scandal in 1978–79 *
Southern Methodist University football scandal The Southern Methodist University football scandal was an incident in which the Mustangs football program at Southern Methodist University (SMU) was investigated and punished for repeated violations of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NC ...
– in 1986, it was revealed that
Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = " The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , pr ...
boosters gave football players thousands of dollars from a "slush fund" with the knowledge of university administrators. Along with a string of prior NCAA violations, this led the NCAA to level the "death penalty" on the school's football team. *
University of Michigan basketball scandal The University of Michigan basketball scandal, or the Ed Martin scandal, concerned National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) rules violations resulting from the relationship between the University of Michigan (or Michigan), its men's bask ...
– four players, most notably
Chris Webber Mayce Edward Christopher Webber III (born March 1, 1973) is an American former professional basketball player. Drafted number one overall by the Orlando Magic, though arguably best known and remembered as the star forward for the Sacramento King ...
, were paid by a booster to launder money from his gambling operations. In some cases, the payments extended to their high school days. *
University of Minnesota basketball scandal The University of Minnesota basketball scandal involved National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules violations, most notably academic dishonesty, committed by the University of Minnesota men's basketball program. The story broke the day ...
– the ''
St. Paul Pioneer Press The ''St. Paul Pioneer Press'' is a newspaper based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. It serves the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. Circulation is heaviest in the east metro, including Ramsey, Dakota, and Washington counties, a ...
'' reported the day before the
1999 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 1999 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 11, 1999, and ended with the champions ...
that an academic counseling staffer at the university publicly acknowledged doing coursework for many basketball players. *
Baylor University basketball scandal The Baylor University basketball scandal occurred in the early 2000s, when Baylor University's men's basketball program was investigated and punished for numerous infractions by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The scandal bro ...
– player Patrick Dennehy was murdered by teammate Carlton Dotson. Later, coach
Dave Bliss David Gregory Bliss (born September 20, 1943) is an American basketball coach. He served as the head men's basketball coach at University of Oklahoma, Southern Methodist University, the University of New Mexico, Baylor University, and Southwestern ...
instructed his players to lie to NCAA investigators that Dennehy dealt drugs. In the wake of these events, numerous violations of NCAA rules were discovered. *
Duke lacrosse case The Duke lacrosse case was a widely reported 2006 criminal case in Durham, North Carolina, United States in which three members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team were falsely accused of rape. The three students were David Evans, Collin ...
– a stripper hired by members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team for an informal team party in 2006 falsely accused three players of
rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...
. *
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill football scandal The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill football scandal is an incident in which the football program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was investigated and punished for multiple violations of National Collegiate Athleti ...
– over ten football players received improper benefits and committed academic fraud by turning in coursework prepared by tutors. *
2011 University of Miami athletics scandal The 2011 University of Miami athletics scandal was a University of Miami athletics scandal involving the university's football and men's basketball programs between 2002 and 2010. As part of the scandal, these two University of Miami programs w ...
Yahoo! Sports Yahoo! Sports is a sports news website launched by Yahoo! on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc. It employs numerous writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American major sport. Be ...
broke a story in which former Miami booster
Nevin Shapiro Nevin Karey Shapiro (born April 13, 1969) is a convicted felon who currently is imprisoned for orchestrating a $930 million Ponzi scheme. According to interviews, he engaged in rampant violations of NCAA rules over eight years as a booster for U ...
, currently imprisoned for running a
Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comi ...
, indicated he had provided massive amounts of improper benefits to Miami players and coaches, mostly in football, but also in men's basketball. *
Penn State child sex abuse scandal The Penn State child sex abuse scandal concerned allegations and subsequent convictions of child sexual abuse committed by Jerry Sandusky, an assistant coach for the Penn State Nittany Lions football team, over a period of at least fifteen years ...
– in November 2011, former Penn State defensive coordinator
Jerry Sandusky Gerald Arthur Sandusky (born January 26, 1944) is an American retired college football coach and convicted serial child molester. Sandusky served as an assistant coach for his entire career, mostly at Pennsylvania State University under Joe ...
was arrested on 40 counts of sexually abusing eight boys over a 15-year period including incidents in Penn State's football facilities. In June 2012, Sandusky was convicted on 45 charges related to the scandal. *
University of North Carolina academic-athletic scandal The University of North Carolina academic-athletic scandal involved alleged fraud and academic dishonesty committed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Following a lesser scandal that began in 2010 involving academic fraud an ...
– in a follow-up to the UNC football scandal, new accusations of academic fraud arose in relation to the university's African and Afro-American Studies department and men's basketball program, men's football team, women's soccer and other sports as well. The Wainstein Report, an independent report commissioned by UNC, revealed academic fraud that occurred over at least 18 years involving thousands of students and student athletes. Allegedly, thousands of student athletes were directed by the UNC administration to take "sham" classes in order to maintain eligibility. UNC avoided major NCAA penalties, mainly because said sham classes had been offered to the entire student body. *
2015 University of Louisville basketball sex scandal The 2015 University of Louisville basketball sex scandal involved National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules violations committed by the University of Louisville (U of L) men's basketball program. The scandal centered around improper b ...
– In 2015, Yahoo! Sports reported that a self-described former madam alleged that she had been paid several thousand dollars from 2010 to 2014 by men's basketball staffer
Andre McGee Andre Jerome McGee (born March 7, 1987) is a former American basketball coach and player who was most recently assistant coach at the University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC). McGee played college basketball at Louisville under Rick Pitino and ...
for strip shows and sex parties for players and prospective recruits. The NCAA announced the results of its investigation in June 2017, announcing major sanctions that included a 10-year
show-cause penalty In the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), a show-cause penalty is an administrative punishment ordering that any NCAA penalties imposed on a coach found to have committed major rules violations will stay in effect against that coach fo ...
for McGee and the potential loss of the team's 2013 national title. An appeal by Louisville failed, and in February 2018 the Cardinals became the first Division I basketball program to be stripped of a national championship. *
Baylor University sexual assault scandal The Baylor University sexual assault scandal was the result of numerous allegations of and convictions for sexual and non-sexual assaults committed by Baylor University students, mostly players in the Baylor Bears football team. During a period ...
– in 2016, Baylor and its football program were rocked by the revelation that university officials failed to act on numerous alleged sexual and non-sexual assaults by football team members between 2012 and 2016, with one player convicted of felony sexual assault. A later lawsuit filed by a group of victims alleged that 31 football players committed 52 rapes between 2011 and 2014. In the wake of the scandal, head football coach
Art Briles Arthur Ray Briles (born December 3, 1955) is an American football coach who is currently the head coach for the Guelfi Firenze in the Italian Football League. Briles was the head coach of the Houston Cougars from 2002 to 2007 and the Baylor Be ...
was fired, athletic director
Ian McCaw Ian McCaw is a Canadian-American college athletics administrator. He has served as the athletic director at Liberty University since 2016, when he resigned amid scandal from Baylor University. Biography Born in Canada, McCaw graduated from La ...
resigned, and university president
Ken Starr Kenneth Winston Starr (July 21, 1946 – September 13, 2022) was an American lawyer and judge who authored the Starr Report, which led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. He headed an investigation of members of the Clinton administration, know ...
was first demoted and then resigned. *
2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball corruption scandal The 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball corruption scandal was a corruption scandal, initially involving sportswear manufacturer Adidas as well as several college basketball programs associated with the brand but now involving many progr ...
– An ongoing
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
investigation into corruption in NCAA men's basketball that has so far resulted in the arrest of 10 individuals, including college assistant coaches from Arizona, Auburn, Oklahoma State, and USC plus high-ranking executives of sports apparel giant Adidas. Other programs initially implicated in the scandal included Louisville, Miami (FL), and South Carolina. Louisville placed head coach
Rick Pitino Richard Andrew Pitino (born September 18, 1952) is an American college basketball coach who is the head coach for Iona College. He was also the head coach of Greece's senior national team. He has been the head coach of several teams in NCAA ...
and athletic director
Tom Jurich Thomas M. Jurich (born July 26, 1956) is a former American college sports administrator and former football player. He previously served as the vice president and director of athletics at the University of Louisville. He was hired at the Univers ...
(the latter not directly involved in the scandal) on administrative leave, and soon fired both. Further revelations in February 2018 saw more than a dozen additional programs possibly implicated.


Cricket scandals

* Underarm bowling incident of 1981 - Australia's
Trevor Chappell Trevor Martin Chappell (born 12 October 1952) is a former Australian cricketer, a member of the South Australian Chappell family which excelled at cricket. He played 3 tests and 20 One Day Internationals for Australia. He won the Sheffield Shi ...
became very infamous when Australia played New Zealand at the MCG on February 1, 1981, Australian captain
Greg Chappell Gregory Stephen Chappell (born 7 August 1948) is a former cricketer who represented Australia at international level in both Tests and One-Day Internationals (ODI). The second of three brothers to play Test cricket, Chappell was the pre-emine ...
instructed the bowler (and younger brother Trevor) to bowl the last ball underarm to New Zealand batsmen
Brian McKechnie Brian John McKechnie (born 6 November 1953) is a former "double All Black" - representing New Zealand in both rugby union and cricket. Rugby career He played 26 matches for the All Blacks as a first five-eighth and fullback, most memorably be ...
to prevent him from hitting a six. After the bowl, McKechnie threw his bat onto the ground in disgust and Australia won the match. Negative post reactions then occurred after the match. Trevor Chappell was best remembered for the incident. *
John the bookmaker controversy "John" or "John the bookmaker" is the name given to an Indian bookmaker who in 1994–95 gave money to Australian cricketers Mark Waugh and Shane Warne, in return for pitch and weather information. According to the players, they refused to div ...
– a scandal in which
Australia's Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
Mark Waugh Mark Edward Waugh (born 2 June 1965) is an Australian cricket commentator and former international cricketer, who represented Australia in Test matches from early 1991 to late 2002, after previously making his One Day International (ODI) deb ...
and
Shane Warne Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer, whose career ran from 1991 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a right-handed batsman for Victoria, Hampshire and Austral ...
were paid in 1994–95 to provide information on pitch and weather conditions to an Indian bookmaker. The scandal came to light in 1998. *
South Africa cricket match fixing South Africa cricket match fixing refers to match fixing performed by several players of the South African cricket team, during their tour to India in the year 2000. The team was led by Hansie Cronje. Timeline On 7 April 2000, Delhi police Cr ...
in 2000 which resulted in the banning from cricket of
Hansie Cronje Wessel Johannes "Hansie" Cronje (25 September 1969 – 1 June 2002) was a South African international cricketer and captain of the South African national cricket team in the 1990s. A right-handed all-rounder, as captain Cronje led his team to vi ...
*
Ball tampering controversy in August 2006 In 2006, during the fourth day of the fourth Test between England and Pakistan at The Oval, umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove ruled that the Pakistani team had been involved in ball tampering. The Pakistani players refused to take th ...
- On August 20, 2006, when Pakistan toured England in the fourth test, the umpires
Darrell Hair Darrell Bruce Hair (born 30 September 1952) is an Australian former Test match cricket umpire, from New South Wales. He stood on the International panel of umpires from 2002 to 2003, before he, along with fellow Australian Simon Taufel, and N ...
and
Billy Doctrove Billy Raymond Doctrove (born 3 July 1955) is a Dominica former international football referee, but is best known as an international cricket umpire. Career as a FIFA referee During his time as a referee Doctrove took charge of several interna ...
ruled that the Pakistani team had been ball tampering and gave five penalty runs to England then offered them a new ball. After the tea break, Pakistan refused to take the field in protest at the decision. Thus, England won the match by forfeit. After the incident, the whole Pakistan team were busted of the scandal and umpire Darrell Hair was banned from umpiring in cricket. *
Pakistan cricket spot-fixing scandal The Pakistan cricket spot-fixing scandal was a sports scandal that occurred during a Test match between England and Pakistan at Lord's, London, in August 2010. The scandal centered on three members of Pakistan's national cricket team, who ...
– in 2010, three
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
players—team captain
Salman Butt Salman Butt (, born 7 October 1984) is a former Pakistani cricketer and captain who played for Pakistan national cricket team between 2003 and 2010, before getting banned for five years for his involvement in 2010 spot-fixing scandal. He had ...
, Mohammad Asif and
Mohammad Amir Mohammad Amir ( ur, ; born 13 April 1992) is a Pakistani cricketer and bowler for the Pakistan national cricket team. He is playing as a left-arm fast-medium bowler and uses his left hand when batting. Amir made his first-class debut in N ...
—were accused of involvement in a
spot-fixing Spot-fixing is illegal activity in a sport in which a specific aspect of a game, unrelated to the final result but upon which a betting market exists, is fixed in an attempt to ensure a certain result in a proposition bet. Examples include somet ...
scheme in which they allegedly accepted large sums of money to influence specific events within a match, as opposed to an actual match result. After an investigation, the ICC banned all three from the sport for periods from 5 to 10 years. Later, Butt and Asif were tried in a London court and found guilty of charges related to the scheme, whilst Amir pleaded guilty to similar charges in the same court. All received prison sentences ranging from 6 to 30 months. *
2013 Indian Premier League spot-fixing and betting case The 2013 Indian Premier League spot-fixing and betting case arose when the Delhi Police arrested three cricketers, Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, on the charges of alleged spot-fixing. The three represented the Rajasthan Royals ...
*
2018 Australian ball-tampering scandal The 2018 Australian ball-tampering scandal, also known as the Sandpapergate scandal, was a cricket cheating scandal surrounding the Australian national cricket team. In March 2018, during the third Test match against South Africa at Newlands ...
- In 2018, When Australia toured South Africa, Australia's
Cameron Bancroft Cameron Timothy Bancroft (born 19 November 1992) is an Australian cricketer contracted to Western Australia in Australian first class cricket, Durham in English first class cricket, and the Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash League. He made his T ...
was seen on camera rubbing the ball with a small yellow object then hid the object in his underwear. The umpires then ruled he was ball tampering. It was then found that Australian captain
Steve Smith Stephen, Steve, Stevie, or Steven Smith may refer to: Academics *Steve Smith (political scientist) (born 1952), British international relations theorist and senior university manager *Stephen Smith (journalist) (born 1956), American journalist, a ...
and vice captain
David Warner David or Dave Warner may refer to: Sports * Dave Warner (strongman) (born 1969), Northern Ireland strongman competitor * David Bruce Warner (born 1970), South African alpine skier * David Warner (cricketer) (born 1986), Australian cricketer Others ...
were also found to have been involved in the incident. Smith and Warner were then banned for 12 months from international and domestic cricket while Bancroft was banned for 9 months. Smith was also temporarily banned from captaining Australia while Warner received a life ban from captaining. *
2018 Sri Lankan cricket pitch fixing and betting scandal The 2018 Cricket Pitch Fixing scandal refers to the alleged doctoring of the pitch, a central strip of the playing field, in the home test matches of the Sri Lankan cricket team at the Galle International Stadium, as well as during the home tes ...


Doping scandals

* Doping in sport *
Ben Johnson Ben, Benjamin or Benny Johnson may refer to: In sports Association football * Ben Johnson (footballer, born 2000), English footballer * Ben Johnson (soccer) (born 1977), American soccer player Other codes of football * Ben Johnson (Australian foo ...
's positive test for steroids after his 1988 Olympic victory in the
100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contest ...
* The
Festina affair The Festina affair was a series of doping scandals within the sport of professional cycling that occurred during and after the 1998 Tour de France. The affair began when a large haul of doping products was found in a support car belonging to ...
– a series of doping investigations and scandals surrounding the
1998 Tour de France The 1998 Tour de France was the 85th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The race was composed of 21 stages and a prologue. It started on 11 July in Ireland before taking an anti-clockwise route through France to finis ...
, initially focusing on the
Festina cycling team Festina was a former professional cycling team that was active in the professional peloton In a road bicycle race, the peloton (from French, originally meaning 'platoon') is the main group or pack of riders. Riders in a group save energy by ...
, but quickly spreading to several other teams. * The ''
Mitchell Report The ''Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball'', informally known as the Mitchell Report, is the res ...
'' – 88 current and former
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...
(MLB) players were alleged to have used steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. * The conviction of Barry Bonds (2011) – later overturned on obstruction of justice charges relating to the BALCO investigation * Operación Puerto (2006) – a Spanish investigation into a doping scheme allegedly involving many top cyclists, including several potential contenders in the
2006 Tour de France The 2006 Tour de France was the 93rd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between the 1st and the 23rd of July. It was won by Óscar Pereiro following the disqualification of Floyd Landis. Due to the United ...
. *
Floyd Landis doping case The Floyd Landis doping case was a doping scandal that featured Floyd Landis, the initial winner of the 2006 Tour de France. After a meltdown in Stage 16, where he had lost ten minutes, Landis came back in Stage 17, riding solo and passing his w ...
(2006) –
Floyd Landis Floyd Landis (born October 14, 1975) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He finished first at the 2006 Tour de France, and would have been the third non-European winner in the event's history, but was disqualified after test ...
, initially the winner of the
2006 Tour de France The 2006 Tour de France was the 93rd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between the 1st and the 23rd of July. It was won by Óscar Pereiro following the disqualification of Floyd Landis. Due to the United ...
, tested positive for synthetic testosterone and was stripped of his title. *
Doping at the 2007 Tour de France The 2007 Tour de France was affected by a series of scandals and speculations related to doping. By the end of the Tour, two cyclists were dismissed for failing tests and the wearer of the yellow jersey was voluntarily retired by his team for l ...
– the
2007 Tour de France The 2007 Tour de France the 94th running of the race, took place from 7 to 29 July. The Tour began with a prologue in London, and ended with the traditional finish in Paris. Along the way, the route also passed through Belgium and Spain. It was ...
was rocked by a series of doping scandals. Two riders, including pre-race favorite
Alexander Vinokourov Alexander Nikolayevich Vinokourov (Kazakh and russian: Александр Николаевич Винокуров; born 16 September 1973) is a Kazakhstani former professional road bicycle racer and the current general manager of UCI WorldTeam ...
, were disqualified for doping offenses. Both teams involved pulled out of the Tour. A third rider, who had abandoned the Tour after a crash, was revealed to have tested positive for testosterone before the Tour. The race leader, Michael Rasmussen, was removed from the Tour by his team with four stages left amid questions surrounding his possible involvement in doping. *
Lance Armstrong doping case The Lance Armstrong doping case was a major doping investigation that led to retired American road racing cyclist Lance Armstrong being stripped of his seven consecutive Tour de France titles, along with one Olympic medal, and his eventual admiss ...
(2012) – after having been accused of doping for much of the latter part of his career,
Lance Armstrong Lance Edward Armstrong ('' né'' Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. Regarded as a sports icon for winning the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005 after recovering ...
became the subject of an investigation by the
United States Anti-Doping Agency The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA, ) is a non-profit, non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization and the national anti-doping organization (NADO) for the United States. To protect clean competition and the integrity of sport and prevent ...
. The USADA report revealed that he had engaged in a highly sophisticated doping campaign from 1998 onward. Following the report, the
UCI UCI most commonly refers to: * University of California, Irvine, a public university in Irvine, California, United States * Union Cycliste Internationale, the world governing body for the sport of cycling UCI may also refer to: * Uganda Cancer I ...
stripped all of Armstrong's results and awards from that time forward, including his then-record seven
Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consist ...
wins. *
Biogenesis baseball scandal The Biogenesis scandal broke in 2013 when several Major League Baseball (MLB) players were accused of obtaining performance-enhancing drugs ("PEDs"), specifically human growth hormone, from the now-defunct rejuvenation clinic Biogenesis of Americ ...
(2013) – more than a dozen MLB players were found to have received
PEDs ''Protein Engineering Design & Selection'' is a publication of Oxford University Press. Created in 1986, the Journal covers topics related the engineering, design and selection of proteins for use in biotechnology and therapy, and for underst ...
, mainly
human growth hormone Growth hormone (GH) or somatotropin, also known as human growth hormone (hGH or HGH) in its human form, is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction, and cell regeneration in humans and other animals. It is thus important in ...
, from a now-defunct anti-aging clinic in the Miami area. In all, 13 players received suspensions of 50 or more games, with the longest being given to
Alex Rodriguez Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez (born July 27, 1975), nicknamed "A-Rod", is an American former professional baseball shortstop and third baseman, businessman and philanthropist. Rodriguez played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the ...
(162 games) and
Ryan Braun Ryan Joseph Braun (born November 17, 1983) is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played his entire career for the Milwaukee Brewers of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2007 to 2020. Braun also played right field and fir ...
(65 games). The number of players suspended is the most for any single incident in the history of organized baseball in North America. *
Essendon Football Club supplements saga The Essendon Football Club supplements saga was a sports controversy that occurred during the early- and mid-2010s. It centred around the Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, a professional Australian rules football club based in Melb ...
(2013) – in February 2013, the
Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their ...
, a professional Australian rules football club participating in the Australian Football League (AFL), were investigated by the
Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) was a government statutory authority tasked to protect Australia's sporting integrity through the elimination of doping. The authority was part of the Department of Health's portfolio and wa ...
(ASADA) and the
World Anti-Doping Agency The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; french: Agence mondiale antidopage, AMA) is a foundation initiated by the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. The agency's k ...
(WADA) over the legality of its supplements program during the
2012 AFL season The 2012 AFL season was the 116th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured e ...
and the preceding preseason. In January 2016, the players were found guilty of having used the banned peptide
thymosin beta-4 Thymosin beta-4 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''TMSB4X'' gene. Recommended INN (International Nonproprietary Name) for thymosin beta-4 is 'timbetasin', as published by the World Health Organization (WHO). The protein consists (in ...
, resulting in the suspensions of thirty-four players who were part of the program. *
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks supplements saga The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks footy supplements saga was a sports controversy which began in 2011. The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, a professional rugby league club playing in the National Rugby League (NRL). The NRL later offered all five players ...
(2013) – in February 2013, the
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League ( NRL), Australasia's premier rugby leagu ...
, a professional rugby league team participating in the
National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
(NRL), were investigated by the ASADA and the WADA over the legality of its supplements program during the preseason and the regular
2011 NRL season The 2011 NRL season was the 104th season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the fourteenth and last run by the National Rugby League's partnership committee of the Australian Rugby League and News Ltd. The NRL ...
. In August 2014, the players were found guilty of having used the banned peptide
CJC-1295 CJC-1295, also known as DAC:GRF (short for drug affinity complex:growth hormone-releasing factor), is a synthetic analogue of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) (also known as ''growth hormone-releasing factor'' (''GRF'')) and a growth hormo ...
, resulting in the suspensions of fourteen players who were part of the program.


Skating scandals


Figure skating scandals

* Attack on Nancy Kerrigan -
Nancy Kerrigan Nancy Ann Kerrigan (born October 13, 1969) is an American figure skater and actress. She won bronze medals at the 1991 World Championships and the 1992 Winter Olympics, silver medals at the 1992 World Championships and the 1994 Winter Olympics ...
was attacked after a practice session at the
1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships The 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships were held at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. Medals were awarded in four colors: gold (first), silver (second), bronze (third), and pewter (fourth) in four disciplines – men's singles, ladie ...
. Kerrigan's main team competitor,
Tonya Harding Tonya Maxene Price (née Harding; born November 12, 1970) is an American former figure skater, retired boxer and a reality television personality. Born in Portland, Oregon, Harding was raised primarily by her mother, who enrolled her in ice sk ...
, was accused of being involved in the attack.


Short track speed skating scandals

*
Cho Jae-beom Cho or CHO may refer to: People * Chief Happiness Officer Surnames * Cho (Korean surname), one romanization of the common Korean surname * Zhuo (), romanized Cho in Wade–Giles, Chinese surname * Cho, a Minnan romanization of the Chinese sur ...
was convicted for 10.5 years in jail in January 2021 of sexual abuse of multiple Olympic gold medalist
Shim Suk-hee Shim Suk-hee (Hangul: 심석희; ; born 30 January 1997) is a South Korean short track speed skater. She is a two-time Olympic Champion (2014, 2018) and a World Champion (2014). Early life At the age of 6, Shim started short track speed skatin ...
.


Gliding scandals

* During the 2020 Women's World Gliding Championships at
Lake Keepit Keepit Dam is a major gated mass concrete gravity dam with an earth fill abutment and a central gated concrete overflow crest and six radial gate spillways across the Namoi River upstream of its junction with the Peel River in the North West ...
, Australia, the home team captain Terry Cubley (Executive Officer of the GFA) was charged with unsporting behaviour for hacking the official tracking system to bypass the mandatory 15 minute delay and forward real time competitors' positions to his team, granting a tactical advantage. An investigation revealed that Matt Gage had been closely involved with the developers of the tracking system, and was aware of an undocumented back door that allowed the team captain (Terry Cubley) to bypass the 15 minute delay. This real-time information was relayed by the team captain over the radio to the Australian pilots. This was the first time in the sport's history that an entire team had been penalised for unsporting behaviour, with the Competition Director applying a penalty of 25 points per pilot per day. Controversially the pilots involved were spared disqualification only receiving a relatively trivial points reduction (compared to a competing pilot who was disqualified for infringing airspace earlier in the competition). Following a subsequent GFA investigation two of the Australian Team admitted to cheating and the GFA made a formal apology to the FAI and the wider gliding community. Terry Cubley was removed from his role as Vice President of the IGC, but chose to remain as Executive Officer of the GFA . The pilots involved chose to appeal against this decision, resulting in the longest and most comprehensive investigation in the FAIs history. The final judgement described the actions of the pilots as ‘reprehensible’, increased the penalty to disqualification and removed their flights from the competition record. The Appeal Tribunal also recommended the FAI to take further disciplinary action against those involved. Following the Tribunals verdict Lisa Turner (the Australian pilots’ representative to the tribunal) issued a press release re-iterating their denial of cheating, accused the tribunal of bias against the Australian team and announced a further appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport
CAS Cas may refer to: * Caș, a type of cheese made in Romania * ' (1886–) Czech magazine associated with Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk * '' Čas'' (19 April 1945–February 1948), the official, daily newspaper of the Democratic Party of Slovakia * ''CA ...
.


Golf scandals

*
Jane Blalock cheating controversy ''Jane Blalock v. Ladies Professional Golf Association'' was an ongoing lawsuit that took place between 1972 and 1975, following a professional golf incident in 1972. A month after winning the Dinah Shore Colgate Winner's Circle in 1972, Ameri ...
– one of the
LPGA Tour The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of wee ...
's top players,
Jane Blalock Barbara Jane Blalock (born September 19, 1945) is an American business executive and retired professional golfer. After winning several New England golf tournaments in her youth, Blalock joined the LPGA Tour as a professional in 1969, being name ...
, was accused of illegally marking her golf ball on the green. She was suspended and fined by the tour, but Blalock in turn filed suit and won an injunction that allowed her to continue playing. Blalock eventually won her lawsuit and she and the LPGA reached an out-of-court settlement. *
Vijay Singh Vijay Singh ( hif, विजय सिंह ; born 22 February 1963), nicknamed "The Big Fijian", is a Fijian professional golfer. He has won 34 events on the PGA Tour, including three major championships: one Masters title (2000) and two ...
, a former number one golfer in the world, was suspended from the
PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...
for using deer antler spray, which violated the PGA Tour Anti-Doping Policy. Likewise in 1985, Vijay Singh was caught erasing his score on a hole and replacing it with a lower score after the scorecard had been signed. Once the rules officials confirmed the allegations, Singh was banned from the
Asian Tour The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan, which has its own Japan Golf Tour, which is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Official money events on the tour count for ...
. To this day, Singh has not acknowledged that he cheated.


Gymnastics scandals

*
Age controversies in gymnastics The age requirements in gymnastics are established by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) and regulate the age at which athletes are allowed to participate in senior-level competitions. In the latter half of the 20th century, a ser ...
*
USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal The USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal relates to the sexual abuse of gymnasts—primarily minors at the time of the abuse—over two decades in the United States, starting in the 1990s. More than 368 people alleged that they were sexually assault ...
– former
USA Gymnastics United States of America Gymnastics (USA Gymnastics or USAG) is the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States. Established in 1963 as the U.S. Gymnastics Federation (USGF), USA Gymnastics is responsible for selecting and train ...
national team doctor,
Larry Nassar Lawrence "Larry" Gerard Nassar (born August 16, 1963) is an American former physician and convicted child rapist. For 18 years, he was the team doctor of the United States women's national gymnastics team. He used his employment as th ...
, was accused of sexual abuse by more than 150 girls and women. Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in prison on federal
child pornography Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a chi ...
charges in December 2017, and was sentenced to 80 to 300 years in prison after two separate trials on sexual assault charges in January 2018, to be served consecutively.


Horse racing scandals

*
Show jumping horse killings The show jumping horse killings scandal refers to cases of insurance fraud in the United States in which expensive horses, many of them show jumpers, were insured against death, accident, or disease, and then killed to collect the insurance money ...
– from 1975 to 1995, wealthy owners and trainers of show jumping horses conspired to electrocute and otherwise kill over-valued as well as under-performing animals in a 20-year-long scheme to defraud insurance companies. Crimes also committed during this equestrian sports scandal include extortion, mail fraud, animal cruelty and the murder of at least one human being. *
Fine Cotton Fine Cotton (29 November 1976 20 February 2009) was a brown Australian Thoroughbred gelding which was at the centre of a substitution scam (also known as a List of sports idioms#R, ring-in) which occurred on 18 August 1984, in the Commerce Novi ...
/
Bold Personality Bold Personality was an Australian Thoroughbred racehorse who gained notability by being substituted for the inferior horse Fine Cotton in a race at Eagle Farm Racecourse, Brisbane on 18 August 1984. The attempted scam is infamous in Australian ...
ring-in – a 1984 betting scam in which the conspirators, which included some elite figures in Australian Thoroughbred racing, substituted the far more talented Bold Personality for Fine Cotton in a low-class race. The scheme was discovered immediately after the race and the investigation led to lifetime bans for six individuals and bans of more than a decade for at least two more. *
2020 Horse racing doping scam The 2020 Horse racing doping scam was revealed in March 2020, when the FBI cracked down several top names in horse racing. Initially, 27 people (trainers and veterinarians) were charged with doping, which later increased to 29 people. Among the ac ...
– the scam was revealed in March 2020, when the FBI cracked down several top names in american horse racing. Initially, 27 people (trainers and veterinarians) were charged with doping, which later increased to 29 people.


Ice hockey scandals

*
Operation Slapshot Operation Slapshot is the code name of an undercover police operation, spearheaded by New Jersey state police, against an illegal nationwide gambling ring. Details The operation was made public on February 6, 2006. Rick Tocchet, an assistant co ...
(2006) – investigation into a gambling ring allegedly operated by
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...
assistant coach
Rick Tocchet Richard Tocchet (; born April 9, 1964) is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player. Playing as a right winger, he played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Los Angel ...
.


Match-fixing scandals

* Ten of the twelve members of the gold medal-winning Spanish basketball team at the
2000 Summer Paralympics The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games or the XI Summer Paralympics were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, between 18 and 29 October. The Sydney Paralympics was last time that the Summer Paralympics which were organized by two different ...
were revealed to have no disability. *
Fresno Case The Case Fresno is the name assigned by the Catalonia media and public opinion to the Federation of International Roller Sports (FIRS) assembly held at Fresno, California, on 26 November 2004. It meant that for the first time in history, an inte ...
scandal (2004) – an attempt to rig a vote to prevent the
Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid ...
rink hockey Roller hockey (in British English), rink hockey (in American English) or quad hockey is a team sport played on roller skates. It is the only quad skate team sport in existence where two teams face-off against one another at the same time. Two t ...
team from being accepted into international competition. *
Melbourne Football Club tanking scandal The Melbourne Football Club tanking scandal refers to issues involving the Melbourne Football Club and allegations that it had tanked towards the latter part of the 2009 season – that is, that it had intentionally lost matches near the end of ...
(2009) – allegations arose that the club deliberately lost matches in
2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
so that it would put itself into a position whereby they would secure a
priority draft pick The priority draft pick is a type of draft selection in the Australian Football League's AFL Draft. Priority draft picks are additional draft picks, located at or near the start of the draft, which are given only to the poorest performing teams, ...
at that year's draft. * In 2011, snooker player
John Higgins John Higgins, (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 career ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (39) and Stephen Hendry ( ...
was accused of accepting bribery in order to lose frames purposefully. Higgins denied any accusations of match-fixing and bribery, however, he was found guilty of accepting bribery while there was no evidence for him match-fixing. "World number one John Higgins has been suspended from all future tournaments after reportedly agreeing to take a £261,000 bribe to lose frames."


Motorsport and racing scandals

*
1994 Formula One cheating controversy Allegations of cheating were made throughout the 1994 Formula One World Championship. Several Formula One teams were involved, with the main allegations surrounding Benetton Formula. Initially, Benetton was alleged to have been using illegal tracti ...
– a number of allegations of cheating were thrown during the 1994 Formula One season, particularly to Benetton team. *
2007 NASCAR Gatorade Duel scandal The 2007 Gatorade Duels were a pair of NASCAR Nextel Cup Series stock car races that were held on February 15, 2007 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. Both, contested over 60 laps, were the qualifying ...
– three various incidents related to the
Gatorade Duel The Bluegreen Vacations Duel, formerly known as the Twin 125s, is a NASCAR Cup Series preliminary event to the Daytona 500 held annually in February at Daytona International Speedway. It consists of two races, which both serve as a qualifying r ...
. *
2007 Formula One espionage controversy The 2007 Formula One espionage controversy, also known as Spygate and Stepneygate, was a set of accusations among Formula One racing teams that confidential technical information had been passed between them. It involved the McLaren, Ferrari a ...
, commonly known as Spygate – an incident in which
Scuderia Ferrari Scuderia Ferrari S.p.A. () is the racing division of luxury Italian auto manufacturer Ferrari and the racing team that competes in Formula One racing. The team is also known by the nickname "The Prancing Horse", in reference to their logo. ...
mechanic
Nigel Stepney Nigel Stepney (14 November 1958 – 2 May 2014) was a British mechanic. He worked for several teams in Formula One before being appointed chief mechanic at Ferrari. He became a central figure in the 2007 Formula One espionage controversy. ...
passed on a secret document to
Mike Coughlan Michael Coughlan (born 17 February 1959) is a British motor racing engineer and designer. He was Chief Designer for the McLaren Formula One team from to , where he was suspended for his part in the spygate scandal between McLaren and Ferrari ...
of
McLaren McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formul ...
. * 2008 race fixing controversy – it was surrounded by allegations in
Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship ...
that driver Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed in the
2008 Singapore Grand Prix The 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, formally known as the 2008 Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix, was a Formula One race held on 28 September 2008 at 20:00 SST at the newly built Marina Bay Street Circuit in Marina Bay, Singapore. It was the 15 ...
to help his
Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufacture ...
teammate
Fernando Alonso Fernando Alonso Díaz (; born 29 July 1981) is a Spanish racing driver currently competing for Alpine in Formula One. He won the series' World Drivers' Championship in and with Renault, and has also driven for McLaren, Ferrari, and M ...
win *
2013 Federated Auto Parts 400 The 2013 Federated Auto Parts 400 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held on September 7, 2013, at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Virginia, United States. Contested over 400 laps, it was the twenty-sixth and final race lea ...
– in the final Sprint Cup race, before the field was set for the 2013
Chase for the Sprint Cup The NASCAR playoffs is a championship playoff system used in NASCAR's three national series. The system was founded as 'The Chase for the Championship' on January 21, 2004, and was used exclusively in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2004 to 2015. S ...
, three teams—
Michael Waltrip Racing Michael Waltrip Racing Holdings LLC, doing business as Michael Waltrip Racing ("MWR"), was an American professional stock car racing team that last competed full-time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The company was as a 50–50 partnership betwe ...
,
Penske Racing Team Penske (formerly Penske Racing) is an American professional auto racing organization, competing in the NTT IndyCar Series, NASCAR Cup Series, and the FIA World Endurance Championship. Debuting at the 1966 24 Hours of Daytona, the organiza ...
and
Front Row Motorsports Front Row Motorsports is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The team began running part-time in 2004 as Means-Jenkins Motorsports under a partne ...
—were found to have extensively manipulated the race finish in an attempt to secure Chase places for MWR driver
Martin Truex Jr. Martin Lee Truex Jr. (born June 29, 1980) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. He is the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Serie ...
and Penske driver
Joey Logano Joseph Thomas Logano (born May 24, 1990), is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 22 Ford Mustang for Team Penske, and part-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Serie ...
. *
2019 Ford EcoBoost 400 The 2019 Ford EcoBoost 400 was a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race that was held on November 17, 2019, at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida. Contested over 267 laps on the 1.5 mile (2.4 km) oval, it was the 36th and final r ...
– in the final race of the
2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series The 2019 NASCAR Cup Series (also known as the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series for sponsorship reasons) was the 71st season of NASCAR professional stock car racing in the United States, and the 48th modern-era Cup series season. The seas ...
, three teams –
Premium Motorsports Premium Motorsports (formerly Jay Robinson Racing) was an American professional stock car racing team that competed in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team last fielded the No. 15 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 LE full-time for Brennan Poole, and the No. 27 ...
,
Spire Motorsports Spire Motorsports is an American auto racing organization competing in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team is a subsidiary of Spire Sports + Entertainment. In the Cup Series, the team currently fields two Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 teams: the No. 7 for Core ...
and
Rick Ware Racing Rick Ware Racing (RWR) is an American motorsports team which currently competes in the NASCAR Cup Series, WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the NTT IndyCar Series. History The organizational roots of RWR date back to Ware & Sons Racing wit ...
– were found to have manipulated the race finish by parking their cars in order to allow the No. 27 team to score more points, passing the
Gaunt Brothers Racing Gaunt Brothers Racing was a Canadian professional stock car racing team that competes in the NASCAR Cup Series. Gaunt Brothers Racing also competes in the Pinty's Series and the K&N Pro Series. The team is owned by Marty Gaunt, president and C ...
No. 96 in the standings to obtain an end of season cash bonus.


Olympic Games scandals

*
2002 Winter Olympic bid scandal The 2002 Olympic Winter Games bid scandal was a scandal involving allegations of bribery used to win the rights to host the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Prior to its successful bid in 1995, the city had attempted fo ...
– a number of
IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental Sports governing body, sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an associ ...
members were forced to resign after it was uncovered that they had accepted inappropriately valuable "gifts" in return for voting for
Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...
to hold the Games. *
2002 Winter Olympics figure skating scandal At the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, it was alleged that the pairs' figure skating competition had been fixed, in which a French judge had compromised scores. The Russian team was awarded the gold. After limited investigation of ...
– dual gold medals were awarded in pairs figure skating to Canadian pair
Jamie Salé Jamie Rae Salé (born April 21, 1977) is a Canadian former competitive pair skater, and a current motivational speaker and conspiracy theorist. With her former husband David Pelletier, she is the 2002 Olympic Champion and 2001 World Champion. ...
and
David Pelletier David Jacques Pelletier (born November 22, 1974) is a Canadian pairs figure skater. With his former wife Jamie Salé, he was the co-gold medal winner at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. They shared the gold medal with the Russian pair Elena Be ...
, as well as to Russian pair
Elena Berezhnaya Elena Viktorovna Berezhnaya (russian: Елена Викторовна Бережная, born 11 October 1977) is a Russian former pair skater. With partner Anton Sikharulidze, she is the 1998 and 1999 World champion, 1998 Olympic silver med ...
and
Anton Sikharulidze Anton Tarielyevich Sikharulidze (russian: link=no, Антон Тариэльевич Сихарулидзе, born 25 October 1976) is a Russian former pair skater. With Elena Berezhnaya, he is the 1998 and 1999 World champion, 1998 Olympic s ...
, after allegations of collusion among judges. *
Lochtegate Lochtegate is the colloquial name of the scandal involving United States swim team members Ryan Lochte, Jimmy Feigen, Gunnar Bentz, and Jack Conger during the 2016 Summer Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. While initial news stories reported ...
– four United States swimmers at the 2016 Summer Olympics including
Ryan Lochte Ryan Steven Lochte ( ; born August 3, 1984) is an American professional swimmer and 12-time Olympic medalist. Along with Natalie Coughlin, Dara Torres, and Jenny Thompson, he is the second-most decorated swimmer in Olympic history measured ...
were involved in a scandal around an accusation being victims of armed robbery, which ultimately concluded with fines, loss of sponsorships, and statements of apology from the swimmers and various oversight organizations. *
Russian doping scandal Systematic doping of Russian athletes has resulted in 48 Olympic medals stripped from Russia (and Russian associated teams), four times the number of the next highest, and more than 30% of the global total. Russia has the most competitors who h ...
– Russia has the most (51) Olympic medals stripped for doping violations – four times the number of the second country (Belarus). From 2011 to 2015, more than a thousand Russian competitors in various sports, including summer, winter, and Paralympic sports, benefited from a cover-up with no indication that the program has ceased since then.


Paralympic Games

*
Cheating at the Paralympic Games Cheating at the Paralympic Games has caused scandals that have significantly changed the way in which the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) manages the events. Testing for performance-enhancing drugs has become increasingly strict and mor ...
– in the
2000 Summer Paralympics The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games or the XI Summer Paralympics were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, between 18 and 29 October. The Sydney Paralympics was last time that the Summer Paralympics which were organized by two different ...
, athletes from Spain competed and won the gold medal in the Basketball ID event despite the majority of players not having an intellectual disability. The fallout from this scandal saw all events for athletes with intellectual disabilities removed from the next two Summer Paralympics.


Rugby league scandals

*
Melbourne Storm salary cap breach The Melbourne Storm salary cap breach was a major breach of the National Rugby League's strictly enforced salary cap by the Melbourne Storm club over a period of five years. The discovery of these breaches in 2010 by the NRL resulted in it stri ...
– in 2010, the
Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998 ...
were punished for breaching the salary cap and were stripped of the ability to accumulate points, had their name stripped from the premierships and minor premierships they had gained over the previous four years and forced to pay back millions of dollars of prize money. It is the toughest punishment for a salary cap breach in NRL history. * Cronulla Sharks supplements doping scandal – following an extensive investigation by ASADA, players from the
Cronulla Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League ( NRL), Australasia's premier rugby leagu ...
were found guilty of having used the banned peptide CJC-1295, resulting in the suspensions of fourteen players. A number of senior staff were dismissed or resigned and several senior club members received penalties and suspensions. * Matthew Johns sexual assault allegations – in 2002, while on a trip to New Zealand, Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks player
Matthew Johns Matthew James Johns (born 27 July 1971) is an Australian rugby league media personality, commentator and former professional player. An Australian international and New South Wales State of Origin representative , Johns played his club footbal ...
took part in degrading group sex with a young woman while up to 11 of his teammates joined in. The scandal was reported by the
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
's ''
Four Corners The Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. The Four Corners area ...
'' TV series. Johns admitted having consensual sex with the girl and made a public apology on Channel Nine's '' The Footy Show''. Johns was suspended from ''The Footy Show'' and was released by the Melbourne Storm as their assistant coach.


Rugby union scandals

*
Grannygate Grannygate is the name given to several different sporting scandals, typically regarding eligibility of players for national teams. A rugby union version of Grannygate occurred in Wales in March 2000, a rugby league version occurred in New Zea ...
– scandal in March 2000 over the eligibility of
Shane Howarth Shane Paul Howarth (born 8 July 1968) is a former international rugby union player who gained four caps and scored 54 points for the All Blacks before later switching allegiance to Wales, attaining 19 Welsh caps. An outside-half or full-back, ...
and
Brett Sinkinson Brett David Sinkinson (born 30 December 1971)
Scrum.com is a
Wales national team *
Kamp Staaldraad Kamp Staaldraad (Afrikaans words, translated idiomatically as ''Camp Barbed Wire'') was a military-style "boot camp" organized as a " team building" exercise for the South African national rugby union team, the Springboks (or Boks), during their ...
– controversial training camp for the
Springboks The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabokoboko), is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...
(
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
's national
rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...
team) before the
2003 Rugby World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup. Originally planned to be hosted by India, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the Indian Rugby Union and Rugby World Cup ...
* "
Bloodgate Bloodgate was a rugby union scandal involving English team Harlequins in their Heineken Cup quarter-final against Irish side Leinster on 12 April 2009. Harlequins wing Tom Williams feigned an injury using a fake blood capsule in order for Harle ...
" – a scheme by the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...
rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...
club Harlequins to fake an injury to
wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is exp ...
Tom Williams to allow a
blood replacement In both rugby union and rugby league, a blood replacement (also referred to as a blood substitution or blood bin) is a special kind of substitution which can be used in the case of a player having to leave the field of play temporarily to have a ...
to be brought on at a critical moment in their 2009 Heineken Cup quarterfinal against
Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...
. The scheme, which included deliberately cutting Williams' mouth open after the match in order to cover up the fake injury, ultimately led to Quins head coach Dean Richards being banned from the sport for three years.


Sumo wrestling scandals

*
Tokitsukaze stable hazing scandal The Tokitsukaze stable hazing scandal occurred in Japan on June 26, 2007, when , a seventeen-year-old junior sumo wrestler who fought under the ''shikona'' of Tokitaizan, collapsed and died after a training session at Tokitsukaze stable's lodgings i ...
(2007) * Match Fixing Scandal (2011) * Harumafuji Scandal (2017)


Tennis scandals

* Betting patterns on
Nikolay Davydenko Nikolay Vladimirovich Davydenko ( rus, Никола́й Влади́мирович Давыде́нко ; born 2 June 1981) is a Ukrainian-born Russian former professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 3 i ...
during a match with
Martin Vassallo Arguello Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands A ...
indicated corruption.


Russian doping scandal


Volleyball scandals

*
Rick Butler sexual abuse allegations Rick Butler is a prominent youth volleyball coach and the founder of Sports Performance Volleyball Club in Aurora, Illinois. Butler has been accused of having had sexual relationships with female players in his club in the 1980s that began when he w ...


References


External links


ArmchairGM's Top 25 Sports Scandals
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sporting Scandals *
Scandals A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...