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)
- Pete Rose gambling on baseball - Dowd Report (1989)
- Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays banned from baseball for being doormen in an Atlantic City Casino (1970s)
- 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.
- 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
- Southern Methodist University boosters giving football players thousands of dollars from a "slush fund", which along with prior NCAA violations, 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.
- Another cricket scandal in 1994 involving Australia's Mark Waugh and Shane Warne which came to light 4 years later.
- 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 horsepower over the permitted amount.[1]
- 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 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
- 2005 Bundesliga scandal - a match fixing scandal in German football centering on disgraced referee Robert Hoyzer
- Minnesota Vikings boat party scandal (2005) - a pleasure cruise featuring 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 Serie A scandal - a match fixing scandal in Italian football involving three of the country's four qualifiers to the 2006-07 UEFA Champions League
- Colorado Recruiting Scandal
- Shane Warne, an Australian cricketer, was reported having a one-night stand with a number of British women.
- 2006 Duke University lacrosse case - a stripper hired by several team members for an informal team party falsely accused three players of rape
- June 19, 2006 - NASCAR team owner Gene Haas was arrested for personal and business tax evasion.
- 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.
- 2007 NASCAR Gatorade Duel Scandal
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.