There will be nowhere to put it – Newspaper Kommersant No. 143 (7344) dated 08/09/2022

The Russian authorities intend to fight harder against the so-called manipulation of the results of competitions, enabling sports federations to receive information from bookmakers about the bets made by the participants of the competition, as well as by judges and coaches. Because of them, several players playing in the lower leagues and at the youth level have already been punished. However, Kommersant’s sources in the betting business confirm that the problem with rates that do not comply with the ethical codes of the federations exists, perhaps even at the elite level.

Submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation for consideration amendments to the federal law “On physical culture and sports”. They were prepared by the profile committee of the State Duma, and among the authors are its head Dmitry Svishchev, as well as several other people, including those with a rich sports background, such as the famous biathlete Anton Shipulin. The bill is devoted to the topic of the so-called manipulation of the results of sports competitions. This concept includes, for example, the organization of fixed matches, the responsibility for which is fixed both in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and in the regulations of the federations.

In this case, however, the deputies concentrate on a narrow aspect – bets on the outcome of competitions (prohibited by the Law on Sports for persons directly involved in them). The bill provides for the expansion of the powers of all-Russian sports federations, regional sports federations, professional sports leagues and organizers of official sports competitions. They are invited to ensure the right, by means of a “motivated written request”, to demand the necessary information about bets made at official sports competitions by athletes, referees, coaches, sports team leaders and sports agents. The request will be sent to the public law company “Unified Gambling Regulator”, which is engaged in supervision and conduct of gambling. Only federations will be able to apply directly to this body, which will also act as an intermediary for other structures.

Dmitry Svishchev, explaining the meaning of the bill to the press service of the State Duma, said that “the federations have the duty to fight against “agreements”, but the powers are not enough,” since “they cannot find out who, where and what is betting” – “by law they have no rights.”

“And we want to give them. This is especially true for those federations on whose sports the fans bet the most: football, hockey, volleyball, basketball,” Mr. Svishchev said. He emphasized that the authors of the amendments “talked with the federations” during their preparation and know that they are “interested” in them: “We want Russian sport to be clean, honest and spectacular. And there should be no place for the selfish goals of sports managers or anyone else.

And Boris Paykin, co-author of the bill, said TASSthat the activities of sports federations in combating the bets of athletes and team members would be more effective if they had access to the data of the Unified Gambling Regulator. At the same time, according to him, the amendments have acquired sufficient relevance, because, for example, “only in the last year and a half it became known about the disqualification of seven athletes and the manager of football clubs who were punished for this violation.”

Scandals related to rates do occur periodically in domestic football, however, in those echelons of it that do not attract increased attention. So, in June, the Russian Football Union (RFU) suspended two players of the Moscow Strogino-M team, playing in the youth championship of the country, Nikita Azemblovsky and Arseniy Kolotusha, for six months conditionally for playing at a bookmaker’s office. They bet on the victory of their team in the match against the youth team of Akhmat, having found a profitable odds for such an outcome. “Strogino-M” really won.

And in 2020, the RFU applied sanctions for betting on the games of its team of three players from the Pyatigorsk club Mashuk-KMV from the third division in terms of status. Yaroslav Maloletkov and Roman Demidov were suspended for a year, Daniil Lezgintsev – for two years.

A Kommersant source in the betting business confirmed that the problem of stakes by “interested parties”, at least in football, “exists”.

And he knows about cases when they were made by “players of top division clubs.” “This does not always mean exactly a fixed match, but, be that as it may, bets violate ethical principles, this must be fought,” the interlocutor of Kommersant explained, who believes that “from a technical point of view, difficulties in providing federations with relevant information shouldn’t happen.”

Alexey Dospekhov