Fencing judges suspected of corruption officiating at Olympics 5000 euros bribe in sabre fencing
A German key witness from the fencing world has made serious allegations implicating the global governing body leadership. Investigations are underway in United States.
A German key witness from the fencing world has made serious allegations implicating the global governing body leadership. Investigations are underway in United States.
Anyone who talks to Marcus Schulz about sabre fencing immediately hears the Düsseldorf native's passion for the sport. He explains how, when he learned to fence as a child, his coach became a partial surrogate father to him. He saw him more often than his parents. After his competitive career ended, Schulz maintained his enthusiasm. He completed a referee training course and then spent his weekends officiating. Even at major international championships.
This changed last year when Schulz retired from sabre fencing as a referee: "I'm frustrated". He can even pinpoint exactly when he lost his enthusiasm: it was the day he was asked to postpone bouts in exchange for money. To cheat. To betray his sport. "That," says Schulz, "broke something inside me." Today, Schulz is a key witness to corruption in fencing.
Fencing expert leads the IOC
In professional fencing circles, such accusations of corruption are not new. There is now a lot of evidence. In United States, judges have been banned, athletes have been warned and investigations have been initiated. The International Fencing Federation (FIE) was informed but nothing has happened. At the Olympic Games in Paris, where the sabre fencing competitions ended on Sunday, judges suspected of manipulation were even nominated for the final rounds - even though the allegations were known and there was a risk that they were true.
When asked about this by ARD, the International Olympic Committee, led by a former Olympic fencing champion, the German Thomas Bach, only said it was the responsibility of the FIE, the relevant world federation. The latter is no less terse, stating that it had closely monitored the qualifying rounds and the Olympics, but had found no irregularities. Experts have long since agreed that the world federation itself is the problem.
The Usmanov fencing system
It was taken over 16 years ago by the oligarch Alisher Usmanov, who is seen as close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He pumped huge sums of money into the world federation of a marginalised sport; estimations put the total at almost one hundred million dollars. Money - a mechanism familiar to sports policy experts from the world football association Fifa or the IOC - creates influence, power and friends. Smaller, poorer national associations often benefit and show their gratitude with votes and support. The Usmanov fencing system has a reputation for venality. It hardly seems surprising that this extends down to the refereeing system.
"They will never let you up"
Although the oligarch more or less voluntarily suspended himself after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, and the EU and other countries have him on an ostracised list, his association apparatus continues to operate.
"The people he has deployed everywhere, the politicians, his vassals who are travelling around and convincing all the associations to give them their votes, especially in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia, they are all still there," says the former referee Schulz, adding: "the same strings are being pulled in the background."
The moment of his own disillusionment has left a deep impression on Schulz: "My former coach came to me many years later at a competition. So Marcus, I need to talk to you. Yeah, sure, no problem. And then we went to his hotel room. That was in Munich at the German Championships.
And he said to me: ‘Marcus, would you be prepared to accept certain benefits? You're also qualifying for the Olympics in Prague. So we would offer 5000 euros for him and the fencer’. At that moment, my whole world collapsed. I couldn't have imagined it. Of course I told him: ‘No way’. And then he said to me: ‘Don't be naive. Are you trying to be a good boy now or what? You'll never make it to the top, they'll never let you. You'll never be a top referee. You're either playing with us or you're against us."’
"Manipulable for the referee"
The problem obviously lies in the rules of sabre fencing: although electronics are used to count hits and video recording is used to check decisions, just like in football, the referee still has a huge amount of influence.
"The biggest problem is that the rules have become so complicated that they are extremely open to interpretation and can therefore also be manipulated by the referee," former official Joachim Wargalla told ARD, "I was a referee at the ‘88 and ‘92 Olympic Games and today, in around 50 per cent of cases where both fencers fall and hit each other, I can't make a decision, I don't know why the hit was made that way. So that actually says everything about the lack of transparency in sabre scoring." Wargalla therefore calls for drastic measures: "As long as sabre fencing can be manipulated in this way, it should not be continued in the Olympic programme."
In the USA, the national fencing association has already initiated an independent investigation. This was because there were anomalies in the bouts of two athletes who subsequently qualified for the Olympics. Both fencers were written to by the federation at the end of last year because of "suspicious refereeing activities" that indicated they had been given "preferential treatment". The federation was "in possession of data" from which the "accusation of manipulation of the sport" emerged.
Hinweise auf Schiedsrichter-Manipulation im Fechten
Controversial judges at the Olympics
In a letter to the FIE, the Americans reported their suspicions and specifically named two international referees: the Bulgarian Vasil Milenchev and the Kazakh Yevgeniy Dyaokokin. They are said to have favoured the American fencers Mitchell Saron and Tatiana Nazlymov. The US federation requested that both judges no longer be nominated for bouts involving American fencers for the time being. But in vain. Both were also present in Paris.
The two possibly favoured fencers were also allowed to compete at the Olympics. Nazlymov told ARD in Paris: "There were many rumours circulating about me, but there was an arbitration procedure before the United States Olympic Committee and they decided that the allegations were not true. And that's why I'm here at the Olympic Games."
The Nazlymov fencing dynasty
But things are not quite that simple. Especially as the independent investigation by several law and business law firms into the allegations in the USA is still ongoing. Nazlymov comes from a Russian fencing dynasty. Her grandfather Vladimir, a former Red Army officer, won three gold medals in sabre fencing between 1968 and 1980. Her father Vitaly runs a fencing academy in the USA, where her grandfather is a coach. His colleague there as a coach is an Azerbaijani named Fikrat Valiyev. But this Valiyev is also an international judge, including at the Olympic Games in Paris.
And in this role, he has repeatedly been on the centre stage in bouts involving fencers coached by his academy colleague Nazlymov. For example, a video is circulating in fencing circles showing an extremely controversial decision in favour of fencer Zaynab Dayibekova in a bout with Italian Irene Vecchi at the Olympic Qualification Grand Prix in Orléans, France, last December. Dayibekova comes from Uzbekistan, where the national federation has Nazlymov as national coach. It also happens to be the country where suspended world fencing president Usmanov was born and where he is a generous donor.
The Uzbekistan connection
Fencer Dayibekova posted a photo on her Instagram profile of Vladimir Nazlymov putting his arm around her as she shows off a medal last September. The same Nazlymov with whom the referee Valiyev works together in an academy. The fencing regulations clearly state that referees may not be used in bouts where such conflicts of interest exist. Especially in an Olympic qualification.
"The whole system is geared towards cheating at the Olympics, because the Olympics is the only event in fencing that somehow attracts worldwide attention," says former German referee Schulz, "And that's what it's all about. And that's why everything is manipulated in the substructure so that as little as possible is left to chance."
