1. Fall of the Czar
Alan Eagleson was one of the most powerful men in hockey, but he ended up behind bars. The first director of the NHL Players' Association, and agent to superstars like Bobby Orr and Darryl Sittler, he was also the promoter of the famous 1972 Summit Series. But the dirty truth was that Eagleson was stealing from his clients and skimming money from sponsorship deals. After a series of devastating exposes, the 'hockey czar' pleaded guilty to fraud and theft, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He was also stripped of the Order of Canada and kicked out of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
2. A sticky wicket
Just this week, police in England were called in to investigate claims fixing of against several players on Pakistan's national cricket team.
The scandal broke after a tabloid story in the UK claimed two Pakistani players had deliberately made illegal plays at specific times in exchange for cash payments from gamblers. Four players, including team captain Salman Butt, were reportedly named as being behind the scam, which may have earned more than $50 million in profits for gamblers. Dozens of other Pakistani cricket matches are now being investigated for hints of possible corruption.
3. Bribery scandal in Salt Lake
Salt Lake City spent years trying to win the right to host a Winter Olympics, but kept losing out to other cities in the final balloting.
They'd given IOC members cowboy hats in an attempt to win in 1998, and lost out to Nagano, Japan. So when it came time to select a host for the 2002 Games, Salt Lake made sure there'd be no mistake and instead of handing out hats, they greased palms. International Olympic Committee members got ski trips, scholarships for their kids, trips to the Super Bowl , deals on real estate, even jobs for family members.
When the scandal broke, 10 IOC members were expelled and another 10 were punished, while the two men in charge of the Salt Lake bid committee resigned in disgrace.
4. Skategate
Bribery of IOC officials wasn't the only dirty deal that went down at the Salt Lake City OIympics. Canadian figure skating fans won't soon forget the controversy that surrounded the pairs event, where Jamie Sale and David Pelletier lost out to Russian rivals Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. Both pairs ended up with gold medals after French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne claimed a wealthy Russian mobster had pressured her to support Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze in exchange for high marks for the French in the ice dance competition. Le Gougne and her boss were suspended for three years and banned from the 2006 Olympics in Torino.
5. The Black Sox
Baseball is the great American pastime, but the reputation of the grand old game took a big hit in 1919, when several members of the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series against Cincinnati. Upset with the tightwad ways of team owner Charles Comiskey, the players conspired with a New York gangster to lose the series in exchange for cash payouts. Say it ain't so! No one wanted to believe outfielder Shoeless Joe Jackson was involved in the scam, but he was one of eight players banned for life. Karma took its cut, too: the cursed White Sox didn't win their next World Series until 2005.
6. Tanking it
He was agent to a string of football stars, and once represented Vince Carter at the height of his Air Canada days with the Toronto Raptors.
But things went very wrong for William 'Tank' Black, who ended up in prison after pleading guilty to money laundering and unwittingly becoming wrapped up in a Ponzi scheme. Black loaned money to college football players in Florida, hoping they'd sign with his company when they turned pro, helped hide the profits of a Detroit-based drug-trafficking ring and lost more than $13 million of his client's money in the Ponzi scheme.
7. The Calciopoli
Italian soccer felt the stain of a match-fixing scandal in 2006, after league champion Juventus and several other powerful clubs were found guilty of rigging games by selecting favourable referees. Italy's most popular and successful club, Juventus was stripped of two titles, relegated to a lower division and saw several key players leave, but still managed to return to the top flight the following season. AC Milan got off even easier, appealing to remain in the lucrative Champions League and going on to win the tournament.
8. Tim Donaghy
It was a scandal that rocked the NBA harder than any-rim-shaking dunk ever could. Referee Tim Donaghy wound up in jail after he was exposed as a gambler who had conspired to fix point spreads in games he was officiating, betting on games he worked and passing information to a pair of former high school classmates in exchange for cash. Donaghy, who later claimed the NBA coerced referees into protecting star players and extending playoff series, was sentenced to 15 months behind bars.
9. Au revoir, les Expos
Jeffrey Loria was struggling to make baseball work in Montreal, and couldn't get the deal he wanted on a downtown stadium. So when the league came along with a plan to contract the franchise, and fix an ownership problem in Miami, Loria was all ears. Major League Baseball took over the Expos and Loria got an interest-free deal to purchase the Florida Marlins, whose previous owner had just bought the Boston Red Sox. Loria took all of Montreal's coaches, scouts and other office staff to Florida, even team computers, leaving the Expos to be run as wards of the state by Major League Baseball until they moved to Washington in 2005.
10. Fleecing Floridians
Now relocated to Florida, Loria and swindling stepson David Samson are still up to their old tricks. The pilfering pair misled Miami officials about the financial state of their team, crying poor in order to get a sweetheart deal on public money for a new stadium.
Turns out Loria's profits are higher than he let on, and he should be paying more of the construction costs. Of course, that would mean there'd be less cash left over to line his own well-tailored pockets.
An examination of the team's books showed annual multi-million dollar payments, camouflaged as "management fees," that were paid to a company owned by Loria.
Source
Alan Eagleson was one of the most powerful men in hockey, but he ended up behind bars. The first director of the NHL Players' Association, and agent to superstars like Bobby Orr and Darryl Sittler, he was also the promoter of the famous 1972 Summit Series. But the dirty truth was that Eagleson was stealing from his clients and skimming money from sponsorship deals. After a series of devastating exposes, the 'hockey czar' pleaded guilty to fraud and theft, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He was also stripped of the Order of Canada and kicked out of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
2. A sticky wicket
Just this week, police in England were called in to investigate claims fixing of against several players on Pakistan's national cricket team.
The scandal broke after a tabloid story in the UK claimed two Pakistani players had deliberately made illegal plays at specific times in exchange for cash payments from gamblers. Four players, including team captain Salman Butt, were reportedly named as being behind the scam, which may have earned more than $50 million in profits for gamblers. Dozens of other Pakistani cricket matches are now being investigated for hints of possible corruption.
3. Bribery scandal in Salt Lake
Salt Lake City spent years trying to win the right to host a Winter Olympics, but kept losing out to other cities in the final balloting.
They'd given IOC members cowboy hats in an attempt to win in 1998, and lost out to Nagano, Japan. So when it came time to select a host for the 2002 Games, Salt Lake made sure there'd be no mistake and instead of handing out hats, they greased palms. International Olympic Committee members got ski trips, scholarships for their kids, trips to the Super Bowl , deals on real estate, even jobs for family members.
When the scandal broke, 10 IOC members were expelled and another 10 were punished, while the two men in charge of the Salt Lake bid committee resigned in disgrace.
4. Skategate
Bribery of IOC officials wasn't the only dirty deal that went down at the Salt Lake City OIympics. Canadian figure skating fans won't soon forget the controversy that surrounded the pairs event, where Jamie Sale and David Pelletier lost out to Russian rivals Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. Both pairs ended up with gold medals after French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne claimed a wealthy Russian mobster had pressured her to support Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze in exchange for high marks for the French in the ice dance competition. Le Gougne and her boss were suspended for three years and banned from the 2006 Olympics in Torino.
5. The Black Sox
Baseball is the great American pastime, but the reputation of the grand old game took a big hit in 1919, when several members of the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series against Cincinnati. Upset with the tightwad ways of team owner Charles Comiskey, the players conspired with a New York gangster to lose the series in exchange for cash payouts. Say it ain't so! No one wanted to believe outfielder Shoeless Joe Jackson was involved in the scam, but he was one of eight players banned for life. Karma took its cut, too: the cursed White Sox didn't win their next World Series until 2005.
6. Tanking it
He was agent to a string of football stars, and once represented Vince Carter at the height of his Air Canada days with the Toronto Raptors.
But things went very wrong for William 'Tank' Black, who ended up in prison after pleading guilty to money laundering and unwittingly becoming wrapped up in a Ponzi scheme. Black loaned money to college football players in Florida, hoping they'd sign with his company when they turned pro, helped hide the profits of a Detroit-based drug-trafficking ring and lost more than $13 million of his client's money in the Ponzi scheme.
7. The Calciopoli
Italian soccer felt the stain of a match-fixing scandal in 2006, after league champion Juventus and several other powerful clubs were found guilty of rigging games by selecting favourable referees. Italy's most popular and successful club, Juventus was stripped of two titles, relegated to a lower division and saw several key players leave, but still managed to return to the top flight the following season. AC Milan got off even easier, appealing to remain in the lucrative Champions League and going on to win the tournament.
8. Tim Donaghy
It was a scandal that rocked the NBA harder than any-rim-shaking dunk ever could. Referee Tim Donaghy wound up in jail after he was exposed as a gambler who had conspired to fix point spreads in games he was officiating, betting on games he worked and passing information to a pair of former high school classmates in exchange for cash. Donaghy, who later claimed the NBA coerced referees into protecting star players and extending playoff series, was sentenced to 15 months behind bars.
9. Au revoir, les Expos
Jeffrey Loria was struggling to make baseball work in Montreal, and couldn't get the deal he wanted on a downtown stadium. So when the league came along with a plan to contract the franchise, and fix an ownership problem in Miami, Loria was all ears. Major League Baseball took over the Expos and Loria got an interest-free deal to purchase the Florida Marlins, whose previous owner had just bought the Boston Red Sox. Loria took all of Montreal's coaches, scouts and other office staff to Florida, even team computers, leaving the Expos to be run as wards of the state by Major League Baseball until they moved to Washington in 2005.
10. Fleecing Floridians
Now relocated to Florida, Loria and swindling stepson David Samson are still up to their old tricks. The pilfering pair misled Miami officials about the financial state of their team, crying poor in order to get a sweetheart deal on public money for a new stadium.
Turns out Loria's profits are higher than he let on, and he should be paying more of the construction costs. Of course, that would mean there'd be less cash left over to line his own well-tailored pockets.
An examination of the team's books showed annual multi-million dollar payments, camouflaged as "management fees," that were paid to a company owned by Loria.
Source
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