Monday 29 September 2008
By AFPA disgraced Russian sumo wrestler threatened Monday to lift the lid on drug use, match-fixing and other "evil things" plaguing the ancient sport.
Soslan Gagloev, 20, rose quickly through the ranks under the ring name Wakanoho, but was thrown out last month for marijuana possession and has since tried unsuccessfully to return.
"The current sumo world is dirty and I wouldn't be able to forgive it even if I can return," he told reporters through a translator.
"I was forced to play unfair matches in return for money as soon as I entered 'makuuchi,'" the highest echelon of the sumo ranks, he said.
"My stable master and others knew (about bout-fixing) but nobody stepped in because they had been also playing unfair matches themselves," he said.
He said other stable masters and wrestlers were smoking marijuana but not being punished.
He did not name names in the 10-minute press conference but said he was ready to testify in court to back the publisher of a magazine that accused grand champion Asashoryu and others of fixing matches.
"I also want to tell all other evil things that I know," he said, explaining that he wanted to clean up the sport.
Asashoryu, a Mongolian, has flatly denied match-fixing. He has joined other wrestlers and the sumo association in a libel suit against Japan's top publisher Kodansha, seeking tens of millions of yen (hundreds of thousands of dollars) in damages.
Gagloev's remarks are certain to provoke outrage among sumo traditionalists who believe wrestlers should be taciturn role models.
The association declined to comment on his latest remarks.
Gagloev took the unprecedented step of suing the sumo authority this month, demanding a return to the sport -- an idea rejected by its head.
Gagloev is one of three Russians recently expelled over use of marijuana, which is strictly forbidden in Japan.
The 2,000-year-old sport has been hit by a series of scandals, including the death last year of an apprentice whose master and elders beat him with bottles and a baseball bat during training.
Foreigners have been rising through the ranks of the traditional Japanese sport. The only two wrestlers who currently hold the top rank of yokozuna are both Mongolians -- Hakuho, who won the autumn tournament on Sunday, and Asashoryu.
Asashoryu has been unpopular with Japanese fans due to his brash attitude.
After the drug scandal involving the Russians, one Japanese conservative proposed a ban on letting any more foreigners into sumo.
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