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CORRUPTION AT THE FIVB: Ethics in Sports. For the World Volleyball and Beach Volleyball Federation ethics represents not only that virtue which regulates human conduct in society; for us it represents the very essence of sports itself. It nurtures “Fair Play”, guarantees respect of the playing rules, and determines the standard practice of the activities of those who lead, administer, conduct and practice sports. Because of this, our line of conduct permanently emphasizes the moral values of sports and severely condemns all transgressions of those principles. In that sense, it was not surprising that recently Professor Hanspeter Graf, President of the Ethics Commission of the FMVB denounced before the international public opinion the internal violations of Dominican Volleyball, and who expressed that under the influence of Mr. Cristóbal Marte, Second Vice-President of the FIVB, President of the NORCECA Confederation, and Vice-President of the Dominican Volleyball Federation, between the years 2001 and 2006 had established a complex web of corruption in order to adulterate the age of nearly thirty adult athletes, who participated with an obvious advantage in the World Youth Championships and Continental Youth Championships. He also explained that the Dominican teams have the regrettable tribute of displaying the only two cases of positive doping in the World Women’s Championships, highlighting the last of these; the case of Evelyn Carrera, who continues to remain unpunished after the team doctor was sanctioned, while this athlete, who maintains a sentimental relationship with Mr. Marte, continues to participate in the Professional League of Puerto Rico. Two Sides of the Same Coin.- What has occurred in the last five years is a clear demonstration of corruption within the International Volleyball Federation, that now combines with the delinquent activities of its President Dr. Rubén Acosta, in the form of the fraudulent practices with which its Vice-President, Cristóbal Marte acted within the domain of sports competition. It is without any doubt that this regrettable episode places the legality of the FIVB at the center of the debate, as one of the regulatory entities of World Volleyball. We must be reminded that in 2003 it was shaken when it was found and proven that Mr. Acosta had charged commissions for television contracts, in addition to having acquired properties of dubious origin, and having taken possession of monies that came from the International Olympic Committee. And now in 2007, Cristóbal Marte, his closest collaborator, makes the news with the discovery of his unfortunate acts that were aimed to obtain a fraudulent advantage by the use of reprehensible practices in sports. This new case will ignite the debate, because many people already question the legitimacy of Mr. Acosta’s regime and ask themselves to what degree has he contaminated World Volleyball? Besides the fact that all of them recognize that the elderly president overcame his expulsion as a member of the IOC and that he bore the sentence of the Courts due to objective falsification of documents, they still have doubts concerning the maneuvers that he must engage in to save his collaborator, and as some hold to be the case, the “dolphin” that awaits to take over the inheritance of his protector and permanent accomplice. A sad epilogue for two men, who strangely united together in sports, associated themselves to commit offenses, one in the economic area, the other in the domain of sports; both with different styles, similar methods, but equal when transgressing moral precepts; in other words, two sides of the same coin. Luis Moreno |