Japan buying sport access to the Olympics
With only 11 days to go until the Olympics start in Beijing, the world media is getting whipped into a frenzy. American news stories seem to still be circling around Beijing’s skies and air pollution, despite Dr Patrick Schamasch, the IOC’s medical and scientific advisor stating that ozone, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide all fell within World Health Organisation limits set in 2005. Japanese news is touching on this, but mainly focusing on its judo stars and table tennis star, Ai Fukuhara (commonly known as Ai chan). That’s natural as they have the biggest chance of coming up with medals for Japan.
But the BBC is reporting a story that I doubt will get much coverage here in Japan. This is the result of an investigation into a Japanese domestic cycling sport called the keirin, and it is believed the organisers of this sport have paid sums of money to the world cycling body to promote the sport and eventually give it access to the Olympics. The BBC story from Matt McGrath is below:
Sport ‘bought access to Olympics’
A BBC investigation has raised concerns that a sport may have bought its way into the Olympic Games. Documents given to the BBC suggest that $3m (?f1.5m; 1.9m euros) was paid by organisers of a Japanese cycling event to the UCI - the world cycling body. The payments were allegedly made in the 1990s. The sport, called the keirin, was supported for inclusion into the Games by the UCI, and admitted in 1996. The UCI and its president at the time, Hein Verbruggen, deny any wrongdoing.
The keirin is a rapid and exciting track cycling event an event where riders are initially paced around a track by a motorcycle before sprinting for the line. It is big business in its country of origin, Japan, commanding tens of millions of dollars in gambling revenue every year. But despite its financial clout, the one thing keirin has always lacked is an international profile.
‘We should really stop it’
Back in the 1980s the Japanese successfully lobbied to put their race into the world track championships organized by the Union Cycliste Iternationale (UCI). It was a move that, according to Mr Koramasu of the Keirin Association, was initially greeted with some scepticism by the incoming UCI President Hein Verbruggen. “In 1992, the world championship was considering dropping the keirin and it was a shocking thing for us. “It started when Mr Verbruggen of UCI proposed dropping keirin from the world championships and we thought we should really stop it.” But four years later the tables had turned completely. Not only was the keirin a fixture in the world championship, it was - by 1996 - preparing to receive the ultimate prize for any sport, a place in its own right on the roster of the Olympic Games.
‘Remarkable turnaround’
The keirin was formally accepted by the International Olympic Committee in December of that year and entered competition in Sydney in 2000. So how did such a remarkable turnaround occur? For years there have been rumours in cycling that the Japanese gave money to the UCI in return for its promotion of keirin as an Olympic event. According to one member of the UCI at the time, the Japanese donated a “big envelope” in return for access. Denmark’s Henrik Elmgreen was also a member cycling’s governing body at the time. “We must admit that when they came it was because the Japanese were very influential in the UCI and they offered a lot of money in order to promote this discipline. “You can to a certain extent say they bought their way in but on the other hand it is a spectacular discipline. “Everybody knew the Japanese were supporting the world cup series and were supporting everything and I think everybody realised that they weren’t doing it for nothing. “They wanted something in return and everybody knew what they got in return.”
‘No transfer of money’
Mr Elmgreen says that everyone knew, but we have found no formal declaration of such a deal’s existence. In fact, when we asked Mr Karamasu of Japan’s Keirin Association, he categorically denied the deal had ever taken place. “No transfer of money took place. “What we did is that we supported establishing the cycling training centres in Japan and also we paid the set amount that all the National Federations pay for membership?c sort of a membership fee - I have to say I do not know about it at all. “I have been in this position up until 1998 however I’ve never heard of any direct payment of money or cash” But documents given to the BBC suggest a different story.
They reveal a series of substantial payments to the UCI, which began just two months after the keirin was accepted into the Olympics in December 1996. Written on UCI letterhead one of the contracts states that the Japanese agree to support UCI projects in “material terms”, in consideration of “the excellent relationship the UCI has with representatives of the Olympic movement”.
‘Payback’
The payments total some $3m - that is about a fifth of the UCI’s annual budget - paid as reimbursements for things like the routine travel expenses of top UCI officials including Mr Verbruggen, the man who is now in charge of the organising committee for the Beijing Olympic Games. In one six-month period in 1999, for instance, the Keirin Association paid for no fewer than five separate return flights on UCI business taken by Mr Verbruggen to the Netherlands, his home country. A source who was within the UCI at the time has told the BBC that the payments were explicitly a payback for getting the keirin into the Games.
We took these revelations to Mr Verbruggen himself who denied that anything improper had taken place. “It’s been done in total transparency”, he said. “This was done for the development of track cycling around the world.” However he did not directly explain how come routine air fares and other UCI expenses were being covered by the Japanese. We contacted the UCI to try and get some clarity on these allegations. They ignored our request.
‘Matter of trust’
We then tried to get some clarity from the International Olympic Committee. Britain’s Sir Craig Reedie is a member of the IOC’s ethics commission which oversees such allegations. However he said it was not directly a matter for his organisation. “The International Federations have their own set of rules. We would trust our International Federations to get this correct. It is a matter of trust.” The organisation’s critics say that the system by which events go in and go out of the Olympics is seriously flawed, with little or no oversight. Their argument is that if you are careful enough and clever enough and you really want the golden Olympic ticket for your sport, there is every reason to believe that you can get your event onto the podium.
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A couple of things about this story stand out for me. Firstly, the comment that the keirin is big business here in Japan, “commanding tens of millions of dollars in gambling revenue every year”. Firstly, gambling is illegal here in Japan so how it can command that much money is hard to believe. If they mean Japanese are placing bets with offshore bookmakers then that would be another illegal practice that would need to be investigated. Although it may be a similar practice to what happens in Pachinko parlours all across Japan: that being that people go in there and pay money to play these Pachinko games. If the people win the game then they can go and collect a prize such as a pack of toothbrushes or a box of bath soaps. There is no money given back to them so it is not gambling. The patron then leaves the Pachinko parlour and then goes next door where they can sell the prize they have won and get money. They then go back to the Pachinko parlour and keep on playing. The shop that bought the items from the customer then sells them back to the Pachinko parlour. It’s a practice that everyone knows fully about but the police just accept it as it brings in nice amounts of revenue. In addition, a lot of the money from Pachinko parlours goes to the Yakuza (mafia) here in Japan and the police don’t like stopping their sources of revenue.
And Japanese sporting teams/organizations paying for privileges isn’t that big of a surprise anyway. The Yomiuri Giants baseball team is always being shown on TV because they pay the TV companies money to show their games. In volleyball, it is frequently touted that the FIVB (volleyball’s world governing body) is paid sums of money by the Japan Volleyball Association. Hence why so many volleyball tournaments are held in Japan when they are still some way from being one of the top world teams for both men and women (currently 12th and 5th respectively). But it goes to show that if you have the money then anything is possible. You can make a game that is virtually unknown except for one country and Olympic sport. Be sure I will report back on this story if it gets reported in the Japanese news. To be honest, I wouldn’t hold your breath.
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Nice article Dave
Thank you, sir
I would imagine that bobsledding was not always such a big sport either. All sports have to start some where, look at BMX and other such ‘extreme’ sports such as kite surfing that are emerging. Give them time and I am sure that one day they too will join Olympic ranks, only after sufficient money has been invested by interested parties.
Keirin is gaining more and more acceptance in the cycling world.
Interesting article Dave!
Crystal - true, and if they make their way onto the Olymipc stage because of their emergence in popularity and participation then good for them. But it shouldn’t be about which sporting organisation can throw the most money at the people in charge.