One of Taiwan’s most respected baseball coaches was questioned by prosecutors yesterday over his alleged involvement in a match-fixing scandal, officials and media said.
TV images showed head coach of the Uni-President Lions, Lu Wen-sheng, and his wife, Hsieh Fu-yu, being separately escorted by investigators to the Banciao District Court in New Taipei City for questioning.
Agents suspected that Lu’s wife had passed on details about the Lions, including the starting lineups and injuries to individual players, to the leader of an underground sports betting ring, Chinese-language newspapers reported.
The papers, including the Apple Daily, said agents and prosecutors had tapped the couple’s telephones for six months following a tip-off.
Lions manager Su Tai-an said Lu has been suspended as head coach for the time being while investigations are underway. Chief prosecutor Cheng Hsin-hung was not reachable for comment.
The Sports Affairs Council, the top government body in charge of Taiwan’s sports development, issued a stern statement pledging to “severely punish anyone damaging domestic professional baseball.”
If found guilty, Lu could be jailed for up to five years on charges of betrayal of trust.
The Lions have won four post-season championships since 2007 after Lu became the head coach, a record for a coach in Taiwan’s professional baseball history.
Taiwan’s professional baseball league took a hit in the middle of last year, when six former players and a politician were sentenced to jail terms of up to seven years following a match-fixing scandal.
Meanwhile, Sports Affairs Council Minister Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) yesterday reiterated the government’s determination to severely punish those who engage in game-fixing.
She said that the Legislative Yuan has passed an amendment to Article 21 of the Sports Lottery Act (運彩發行條例). Those compromising the fairness of the games through means of force, threat, fraud or other methods could be sentenced to one to seven years in prison and could also face a fine of between NT$10 million and NT$30 million.
“We have the determination to give professional players a clean environment,” Tai said.
Tai added that the council has been making structural changes to professional baseball since 2009, including setting up a free-agent system and a minimum-wage policy. Meanwhile, she said the council has worked with the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Education as well as the Chinese Professional Baseball League and professional baseball teams to prevent game-fixing.
When asked who should be held responsible for the alleged scandal this time, Tai said that the system was “well-rounded” and Lu should be responsible for his own behavior.
“The regulations are there to lead people in the right direction, but they still make mistakes. One’s character should be an important factor,” Tai said. “He should be [held] responsible for what he did under such a well-rounded law. He is not a three-year-old.”
Additional Reporting by Shelley Shan
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but