Nippon Professional Baseball Commissioner Katsuhiko Kumazaki said Tuesday three Yomiuri Giants pitchers involved in betting on baseball games should be disqualified for an indefinite period.
At a press conference, Kumazaki said, “The impact that the three players’ wrongdoing had on professional baseball is incalculable.”
Kumazaki also said the Giants should be fined ¥10 million.
His judgment came after the NPB panel investigating the scandal submitted its final report to him earlier in the day.
Following Kumazaki’s judgment, Yomiuri Giants President Hiroshi Kubo announced later in the day that the team had terminated the contracts of the three pitchers — Satoshi Fukuda, 32, Shoki Kasahara, 24, and Ryuya Matsumoto, 22. They were found to have placed bets on professional baseball games and other games in 2014 and this year.
Kubo said the team has already notified the three pitchers of the cancellation of their contracts.
He also said Atsushi Harasawa, senior managing director and representative of the Giants stepped down Monday to take responsibility for the scandal.
“I express a sincere apology,” Kubo said. He said he takes the situation in which three Giants players have been disqualified very seriously. He added that the Giants would do their utmost to prevent a recurrence of a similar incident.
Kubo also said he and Giants Chairman Tsunekazu Momoi will have their director’s remuneration cut by 50 percent “for the time being.”
It was the first time for professional baseball players to have been disqualified due to a scandal related to illegal gambling since the “Black Fog Incident” of 1969. In the earlier scandal, players from teams including what was then known as Nishitetsu were permanently banned from playing after revelations of gambling-related match-fixing involving organized crime.
At the press conference earlier on Tuesday, Motonari Otsuru, chairman of the NPB investigative committee, gave details of the panel’s investigation into the scandal and said the three Giants pitchers should be disqualified for an indefinite period. He said the players violated Article 180 of the Nippon Professional Baseball Agreement, which bans betting on baseball games. He also said the Giants merit a fine of ¥10 million, as the team should be held “gravely responsible” for its lack of supervision of the players.
The panel said it did not find any evidence indicating that the three were involved in match-fixing.
The Giants had accused the three pitchers of violating Article 180 of the Nippon Professional Baseball Agreement.
The article stipulates that the NPB commissioner can disqualify a player for one year or an indefinite period if that player is found to have placed bets on baseball games or engaged in other illegal gambling.
On Monday, the Giants also disclosed the result of its internal investigation into background of the three pitchers’ involvement in baseball betting and measures to prevent a similar scandal from recurring.Speech(The Japan News)
Link: http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002554216
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