Sport New Zealand says alarming statements about the amount of crime in sport did not apply to this country.
David Howman, Director General, World Anti Doping Agency. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
World Anti-Doping Agency Director General, New Zealander David Howman, said nearly a quarter of international sport was controlled by organised crime, yesterday.
Sport New Zealand said it did not believe the problem was anywhere near that bad in this country.
Sport New Zealand Chief Executive Peter Miskimmin said research on corruption was carried out here last year.
"We found no suggestion at all that there was organised crime involved in any systemic way in New Zealand sport, but i think we'd be naive to think that we're isolated from those global trends and we need to be vigilant and we've got a number of steps in place to ensure that we uphold the integrity of sport in New Zealand."
Mr Miskimmin said one of those steps would be to introduce a new law which would make match-fixing a criminal offence.
Sport New Zealand also wanted all sporting codes to have whistleblower protections so people were not afraid to come forward with evidence of corruption.