It seems like rumors of the CPBL’s demise have become as predictable as Nick Markakis’ second-half surges, but things have gone from bad to worse for Taiwan’s professional league in recent weeks. Just a few days after the Brother Elephants–Taiwan’s most popular professional team–threatened to fold at the end of the 2007 season, new match-fixing allegations have come to light from Media T-Rex GM Shih Chin-Hsin.
According to a recent Taipei Times article, Shih alleged on an internet bulletin board that Taiwanese teams are willing to accept money to throw games. The CPBL quickly fired back, with league president Chao Shou-Po remarking that Shih should be ready to submit evidence to the league if such allegations were true.
Regardless of the veracity of the claims, a new scandal could be crippling for a league already besieged by economic problems and a history of gambling-related problems. Last September, a match-fixing scandal implicating Tainan County Council Speaker Wu Chen-Bao ran as one of EWC’s first stories.
(Hat tip to Taiwan Baseball).
3 responses so far ↓
1 bigdaub // Jul 28, 2008 at 11:58 pm
i wouldn’t be surprised if some of the games are still fixed.
taiwan really needs to do something about reviving cpbl. attendance is low and no one gives a sheat about it. they have no clue on how to market and advertise the league and its players, and no concept of building a fan base and create rivalries and excitement.
back to gambling, i really think the solution is to clean house and install new personnels to handle the gambling issue. whoever is doing it now is not doing anything.
2 jackson // Jul 29, 2008 at 2:41 am
So hard to stop something like this when its so prevalent and widespread. If the gambling is present at all levels and even in government who could regulate or eliminate it?
[enter Batman theme]
3 bigdaub // Jul 29, 2008 at 12:35 pm
there are honest and decent people in taiwan… maybe they should hire a few “a-bo-sans” to oversee the gambling issue. all kidding aside, hire people outside of the baseball circle if needed.
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