TOKYO: Japan’s football chiefs have vowed to shun the country’s infamous ‘yakuza’ mobsters, as the sport worldwide tries to protect itself against the long tentacles of organised crime and illegal gambling.
J-League clubs, players and referees issued a joint declaration in Tokyo on Tuesday that they would keep away from “anti-social forces”, a euphemism for Japan’s underworld gangs.
There have been no major mob crimes involving the 20-year-old professional league so far, J-League chairman Kazumi Ohigashi said at a meeting where the declaration was signed.
“But our J-League has already become a target of online betting abroad,” he said.
Betting is outlawed in Japan except on horse racing and some other races.
An organised lottery on J-League matches began in 2001.
But police probes in recent years have implicated sumo wrestlers and organised crime brokers in illegal betting on baseball games.
“There has been a spate of football match-fixing cases in Europe, Africa, Asia and other regions since last year,” the declaration said.
“The spread of online betting and the presence of international crime organisations are reported to be behind this trend.”
In neighbouring South Korea, sports including football, baseball and volleyball have been rocked by match-fixing allegations that have led to suicides and arrests among K-League football players.
In early January, football’s world governing body FIFA announced a series of new measures to combat match-fixing, including an appeal to Interpol for assistance and the establishment of protection programmes for informants.
“To protect the J-League from this wrongdoing, it is necessary for us in football to continue cutting relations with anti-social forces including crime syndicates,” the J-League statement said.
It added the J-League set up a hotline last November for anyone in football to seek advice in dealing with suspect people.
The Japan Football Association has also been in touch with the FIFA-affiliated Early Warning System GmbH, which monitors sports betting market worldwide.
Tateshi Higuchi, chief of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, warned at the meeting: “Like other sports, football is an attractive target for crime syndicates.”
“Once you are associated with them, they intimidate you by threatening to publicise the ties.”
Higuchi said yakuza gangs are expanding into every possible sector of business to keep afloat amid police clampdowns on them as local governments seek to choke off their revenue streams.
In August, a hugely popular comedian and television host had to quit show business over revelations of his close ties with
a senior yakuza gangster. — AFP