Yomiuri Giants
pitchers caught gambling on baseball have been banned indefinitely from the sport they love.
Nippon Professional Baseball Commissioner Katsuhiko Kumazaki announced during a press conference on Tuesday the decision to ban Yomiuri Giants pitchers Satoshi Fukuda, Shoki Kasahara and Ryuya Matsumoto indefinitely after they were found to have bet on baseball games.
All three players admitted during the investigation to betting on games but were not involved in any game-fixing or betting on their own team.
Yomiuri Giants President Hiroshi Kubo also terminated the contracts of the three players for violating the NPB’s charter prohibiting players from gambling on sports. The team will also merit a ¥10 million fine.
“I express a sincere apology,” Kubo said, adding that the team would do its utmost “to prevent a recurrence of a similar incident.”
Giants senior manager Atsushi Harasawa has also stepped down, taking responsibility for the scandal.
Under NPB rules, professional players in Japan can be banned indefinitely or permanently if a player is proven to have placed bets on baseball games or engaged in any illegal gambling. Indefinite bans can be lifted by the commissioner after five years if a player maintains good conduct.
The ban and termination of the three players is another instance since the Black Mist scandal in 1969, in which a number of players from several teams including the Nishitetsu Lions were banned permanently for colluding with Japan’s organized crime to fix the outcomes of matches, although former Lions Masayuki Ikenaga was eventually reinstated in 2005.
