List of sporting scandals

This is a list of major sports scandals:

• Black Sox Scandal (1919)
• Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker's game fixing (1926)
• Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays banned from baseball for being doormen in an Atlantic City Casino (1970s)
• Pete Rose gambling on baseball - Dowd Report (1989)
• Drug abuse in sports — Numerous cases, among them:
  • Ben Johnson (1988)
  • University of South Carolina steroid scandal (1988)
  • BALCO (2004-05), which eventually led to:
    • Game of Shadows, a 2006 book that alleges extensive use of performance-enhancing drugs by Barry Bonds
    • Marion Jones, American athlete, admitting in 2007 that she had used a steroid popularly known as "the clear" prior to her winning five medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics
    • The Mitchell Report, in which 88 current and former Major League Baseball players are alleged to have used steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs
• Clemson University football recruiting scandal (1982)
• Southern Methodist University football scandal: In 1986, it was revealed that Southern Methodist University boosters gave football players thousands of dollars from a "slush fund" with the knowledge of university administrators. Along with prior NCAA violations, this led the NCAA to level the "death penalty" on the school's football team.
• College basketball point shaving scandals (many times, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, with more recent scandals in 1978-79, 1984, and 1994)
• University of Michigan basketball scandal: Four players, most notably Chris Webber, were paid by a booster to launder money from his gambling operations. In some cases, the payments extended to their high school days.
• Diego Maradona - Arrived at the 1994 FIFA World Cup and played two games (scoring one goal) before being sent home after failing a drug test for ephedrine doping.
• Olympic Games scandals:
  • Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan incident (1994)
  • Johann Mühlegg - Salt Lake City scandal - finished first in the 50 km classical race in Cross-country skiing in the Winter Olympic Games on February 23, 2002, but was disqualified from that race and was expelled from the Games the next day, after testing positive for darbepoetin.
  • 2002 Olympic Winter Games figure skating scandal
  • IOC bribery - see 2002 Winter Olympic bid scandal
• Hansiegate scandal in 2000 involving former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje with three other teammates for involving in match fixing.
• John the bookmaker controversy – Another cricket scandal in which Australia's Mark Waugh and Shane Warne were paid in 1994–95 to provide information on pitch and weather conditions to an Indian bookmaker. The scandal came to light in 1998.
• Bruce Grobbelaar's match fixing allegation (1994)
• George O'Leary resume fabrication (2001). This forced him to resign as head American football coach at Notre Dame.
• Canterbury Bulldogs (2002) - Australian rugby league team were stripped 37 competition points for extensive salary cap breaches, going from 1st place to last place on the ladder as a result.
• Jim Harrick resigned as head basketball coach at the University of Georgia in 2002 after his son, Jim harrick Jr., provided an easy exam to Georgia basketball players and other students in a basketball coaching class that he taught and paid a $300 phone bill for a player (Tony Cole).
• Angela's Motorsports scandal (2003)
• Kamp Staaldraad - controversial training camp for the Springboks (South Africa's national rugby union team) before the 2003 Rugby World Cup
• Baylor University basketball scandal (2003) - player Patrick Dennehy was murdered by teammate Carlton Dotson. Later, coach Dave Bliss instructed his players to lie to NCAA investigators that Dennehy dealt drugs. In the wake of these events, numerous violations of NCAA rules were discovered.
• Fresno Case scandal (2004) - an attempt to rig a vote to prevent the Catalan rink hockey team from being accepted into international competition
• Christodoulou kart engine scandal (2005) - Adam Christodoulou and other drivers competed in kart races with illegally tampered engine built by Adam's father Peter, resulting in a one year ban and £30,000 fine for the engine builder.
• Bundesliga scandal (2005) - a match fixing scandal in German football centering on disgraced referee Robert Hoyzer
• Minnesota Vikings boat party scandal (2005) - a pleasure cruise that reportedly featured sexual shenanigans by several members of the Minnesota Vikings of the NFL
• Brazilian football match-fixing scandal (2005) - another match fixing scandal involving referees, this time in Brazil
• Operation Slapshot - investigation into a gambling ring allegedly operated by National Hockey League assistant coach Rick Tocchet (2006)
• 2006 Italian football scandal – a match fixing scandal in Italian football involving several major teams, including three of the country's four qualifiers to the 2006-07 UEFA Champions League
• Colorado Recruiting Scandal
• 2006 Duke University lacrosse case - a stripper hired by several team members for an informal team party falsely accused three players of rape
• Operación Puerto (2006) - a Spanish investigation into a doping scheme allegedly involving many top cyclists, including several potential contenders in the 2006 Tour de France
• 2006 rugby union handbag controversy - initially an incident in which one New Zealand rugby player allegedly struck a fellow player with a woman's handbag; became more controversial when Australia's Seven Network aired a commercial parodying the incident, in which images of the All Blacks performing their pre-match haka were digitally altered to show the players carrying handbags.
• 2006 Kapa O Pango controversy - Australian coach John Connolly suggests that the All Blacks' Kapo o Pango haka should be banned, stating that the throat slitting gesture at the end is a bad example to young kids. The haka was also reviewed earlier in the year, creating more controversy.
• National Football League player conduct controversy (2007—present) - Various incidents involving American football athletes from the National Football League and their conduct off the field and involvement with law enforcement. Notably, Adam "Pacman" Jones, Terry "Tank" Johnson, and Chris Henry's actions that subsequently got them suspended.
• Doping at the 2007 Tour de France – The 2007 Tour de France was rocked by a series of doping scandals. Two riders, including pre-race favorite Alexander Vinokourov, were disqualified for doping offenses. Both teams involved pulled out of the Tour. A third rider, who had abandoned the Tour after a crash, was revealed to have tested positive for testosterone before the Tour. The race leader, Michael Rasmussen, was removed from the Tour by his team with four stages left amid questions surrounding his possible involvement in doping.
• Tim Donaghy – NBA referee under investigation in 2007 for betting on league games, including some in which he worked.
• Ten of the twelve members of the gold medal-winning Spanish basketball team at the 2000 Summer Paralympics are revealed to have no disability.
• In the Commonwealth of Independent States Cup 2006 the Armenian champion FC Pyunik refused to play with an Azerbaijani team, PFC Neftchi. The team FC Pyunik won the Ukrainian team FC Shakhtar Donetsk 3-1 in the quarter-final, when it already knew that in case of victory they will have to play against PFC Neftchi. After the match, they told the referee they wont play against an Azerbaijani team, and already in the evening left Moscow on an airplane. The Russian Football Union gave FC Shakhtar Donetsk a technical victory 3-0 so they could play in the half-final instead of FC Pyunik, but FC Shakhtar Donetsk declined the offer stating that "...we would really want to play in the half-final, but we don't want to get there by any other way then sport". Eventually, because no one could play against PFC Neftchi in the half-final, PFC Neftchi was right away promoted to the final, where it won the Lithuanian club FBK Kaunas 4-2.
• "Bloodgate" – A scheme by the English rugby union club Harlequins to fake an injury to Template:Wing Tom Williams to allow a blood replacement to be brought on at a critical moment in their 2009 Heineken Cup quarterfinal against Leinster. The scheme, which included deliberately cutting Williams' mouth open after the match in order to cover up the fake injury, ultimately led to Quins head coach Dean Richards being banned from the sport for three years.
• Scandals in motorsport
  • Incidents involving loose manhole covers
    • 1990 480km of Montreal
    • 2004 DTM Shanghai
    • 2006–07 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Beijing, China
  • Max Mosley's S&M dungeon allegation (2008) - later resulted in a successful lawsuit bought on by the FIA president against the News of the World newspaper, who covered the scandal.
  • 2005 United States Grand Prix mass "walkout" controversy
  • IMSA Camel GT drug smuggling scandal (1980s) - A group of drivers was arrested for drug smuggling which was used to finance their racing activities, the Whittington brothers (Bill and Don), Randy Lanier and father and son, John Paul Sr. and Jr. would all by 1987 be imprisoned under various charges.
  • Toyota Team Europe's turbocharger scandal (1995). The Toyota factory backed WRC team was banned from for 12 months after being discovered competing with a tampered air restrictor, allowing for more power over the permitted amount.
  • June 19, 2006 - NASCAR team owner Gene Haas was arrested for personal and business tax evasion.
  • Darrell Alderman's drug possession scandal (1991)
  • 2007 NASCAR Gatorade Duel Scandal
  • 2007 Formula One espionage controversy, commonly known as Stepneygate; an incident in which Scuderia Ferrari mechanic Nigel Stepney passed on secret document to Mike Coughlan of McLaren.
• Scandal in horse racing - amongst numerous
  • Horse murders -- From 1975 - 1995 wealthy owners and trainers of show jumping horses conspire to electrocute and otherwise kill over-valued as well as under-performing animals in a 20-year-long scheme to defraud insurance companies; crimes also committed during this equestrian sports scandal include extortion, mail fraud, aninal cruelty, and the murder of at least one human being.
  • Shanghai Syndicate case (1986)
  • Death of Alydar (1990) – The death of the star stallion was initially reported as an accident, but was later speculated to have been a murder motivated by an attempt of his financially troubled owner, Calumet Farm, to collect on a large insurance policy.
  • 1993 Grand National fiasco
  • Stanley Chin race fixing scandal (1996)
  • Operation Green Grass (2002)
  • Kieren Fallon race fixing scandal
  • Operation Twin Towns (2006)
• Scandal in boxing
  • Jake LaMotta vs Billy Fox fight fixing scandal (1947)
  • Sugar Ray Leonard vs Roberto Duran's rematch's "No Mas" controversy and scandal (1980)
  • Billy Collins V Luis Resto scandal
  • Mike Tyson vs Evander Holyfield ear biting scandal (1997)
• Scandals in Sumo wrestling
  • Tokitsukaze stable hazing scandal (2007)
  • Rohō Yukio, his brother Hakurozan Yūta and Wakanohō Toshinori, two Russian sumo wrestlers banned for life one month after the other, after being caught in possession of cannabis (2008)
• Scandals in tennis
  • Gussie Moran's revealing minidress (1949)

External links

• ArmchairGM's Top 25 Sports Scandals