International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge believes match-fixing and gambling represent the next big fight facing sports organizations and governments. “We have made doping a top priority, now there is a new danger coming up that almost all countries have been affected by and that is corruption, match-fixing and illegal gambling,” Rogge said at a press conference Thursday. Rogge cited the recent match-fixing problems in South Korean football and Japanese sumo as just two examples. South Korean prosecutors have indicted more than 70 footballers, gambling brokers and others for alleged involvement in a burgeoning match-fixing scandal, while Turkey too is in the midst of a major match-fixing investigation. In Japan, 25 sumo wrestlers and coaches were expelled from the sport after it was learned they were involved in throwing matches. “This is the new fight we have to confront,” said Rogge. “Today you can't open up a newspaper without finding examples of this so we have to fight against it and this has to be waged by sports movements together with traditional and state authorities.” Rogge was in Tokyo to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Japanese Olympic Committee. Rogge also ruled out the idea of North Korea co-hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics awarded to South Korea last week. “The IOC awards the Games to one city in one country,” he told reporters in Tokyo. “As far as spreading venues between the two countries, that's something we do not consider under the current Olympic Charter. “We're not going to change the Olympic Charter on one city because otherwise you complicate the organization.” The head of the IOC, however, said Tokyo should not be discouraged from bidding for the 2020 Olympics just because South Korea has won the right to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.
