Discuss about the Corruption Claims and Other Scandals.
The beautiful sporting world has over the years been rocked by corruption claims and other scandals that destroy the importance of sports. Sports involve billions and billions of dollars from stakeholders and sponsors. Sport has close ties with political and private bodies thus offering an avenue for corrupt activities (Bartram, 2014, p.74). Rich individuals who politically tend to bribe their way through results while making lots of money. There is no one major way of corruption, and these selfish individuals will use whichever way they know best to fulfill their selfish interests. Tennis sport has recently come under a lot of criticism and scrutiny for alleged corrupt activities. Tennis is a racket sport played in singles or doubles. In singles, an individual plays against a single opponent while in doubles, two teams of two players each face off at the same time (Perrotta, 2016). The purpose of this report is to investigate, determine and analyze the different forms of corruption practices that are rocking the beautiful game of Tennis.
Sports corruption takes different forms. Players, referees, and key match officials take inducements to fix matches. Money laundering in the form of sponsorship deals and advertising arrangements add to the long list of corruption practices in the sporting world. In some instances, Governments and private companies rig bids for lucrative construction contracts (Nassif, 2014, p.123). Club owners, coaches and even sport governing bodies have been hit with major corruption scandals. A new form of corruption that has hit the sporting world is match fixing through betting firms. The bookies in collaboration with club owners, players, coaches and even match officials fix the result of various matches thereby making the bookies make a lot of money which they split amongst themselves (Teng et al, 2012, p.345). These practices are very unethical given that people compete to find a winner, fans go to sporting events to entertain themselves and offer support to their preferred teams. Sport unites the world and thus it should not be an avenue for people to satisfy their selfish needs.
Another form of tennis corruption involves the Tennis Umpires and gamblers. Umpires have been ‘courtsiding’ allowing gamblers to defraud bookmakers. In this latest scam involving Tennis officials, gamblers, and the Umpires make a lot of money in a matter of seconds without the knowledge of the players. The Guardian newspaper carried out investigations regarding this corruption in Futures Tour in 2016. Umpires are supposed to update the scoreboard after each point has been made. In this case, they delay updating the information by around a minute which gives gamblers a window to place bets already knowing the outcome in some cases it was alleged that Umpires went to a mile further by texting the gamblers directly even before updating the score on their tablets and computers. When umpires delay updating the scoreboard immediately, bookmakers and live-score sites retain the information they have thus no update on bets. These unscrupulous officials should not be left unmonitored, and the Tennis Integrity Unit should move swiftly in dealing with such corrupt activities.
Another official by the name Kirill Parfenov was decertified for life in 2015 for engaging in misconduct activities. The Tennis Umpire was found guilty by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) for contacting another Umpire via Facebook in an attempt to manipulate the scoring of matches. Kirill was banned alongside Pitner, but the bans kept in secret. Kirill’s actions portray what is happening in secrecy in the Tennis sport, and the ITF should take legal action and discipline these individuals. An official who is found guilty of fixing matches and helping gamblers to defraud bookmakers should not only be handed a life ban but should also be given a jail sentence to act as an example and a warning to others (John, 2016).
The tennis world has been hit with numerous doping issues involving star players such as Maria Sharapova and Fernando Romboli. Fernando Romboli was given a eight and a half month suspension for testing positive for banned substance in a drug test. Though the ITF is cracking the whip on these actions, the announcements of the bans are made even six months later after the player has probably served the ban. Maria Sharapova was banned for two years for doping. Maria’s urine tested positive for Meldonium, a drug banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. It is clear that doping corruption is present in tennis and the games governing federation and all other stakeholders have to address the issue urgently to protect the transparency of the game.
Other than lower ranked players fixing matches the stars who are ranked above the top 50 have also been found to deliberately lose matches to make money. Nick Lindahl was found guilty of fixing a match in Queensland and attempted to conceal his actions from the police. Lindahl was investigated by the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), NSW Police and the Victoria Police and found guilty (Reid et al, 2007, p.670). The investigations revealed that Lindahl had revealed to two acquaintances named Matthew Fox and Ryan Wolfenden of his intentions. Lindahl had planned to tank his match against Andrew Corbit knowing that Matthew and Ryan would use the information to place bets. The match was considered a minor tennis match for Lindahl who was the favorite to win. It is alleged that Lindahl had been paid by some gamblers or a bookie to fix the match and let the opponent win. He was later caught authorities intercepted communication between him and Fox instructing Fox to delete all the information related to the scam. Both Fox and Lindahl were arrested and prosecuted according to the law.
Tennis has been hit with scandals involving corruptions and to stakeholders in the game, this is not an unusual thing. In 2007, Mark Davies, an influential figure in the betting world claimed that tennis has always been liable to corrupt activities. Davies who was the managing director of an online bookmaker called Betfair mad these claims while speaking to the Telegraph in an interview by Mark Hodgkinson. Davies had an agreement with tennis authorities to always raise the alarm when he identifies suspicious gambling patterns (Hosmer-Henner, 2010, p.33). Many players engage in corruption for different reasons best known to them. Davies strongly argues that match fixing has always gone undetected, and the courts have always left these criminals free by fining them peanuts forgetting they are coming back to spread the vice to other younger professionals. Davies disputes the idea that tennis and the sports world suddenly has corruption because of the rise in gambling patterns (Futterman et al, 2016). Even before gambling was widespread corruption was slowly poisoning the game under the watch of cartels and players.
Mark Davies goes further to state that any all sport has been liable to corrupt activities especially tennis. For the very reason, that tennis matches have to produce clear results one way or another is the basis of corruption. Davies gives an example of how chariot races were rigged for financial rewards. It would not be true to say that a certain sport has no corruption while corruption in sport started ages ago with our fore fathers. In August 2007, Betfair refused to pay out on bets wagered on a Russian tennis player by the name Nikolay Davydenko. The match had shown irregular betting patterns signifying that it may have been fixed but without the bookmaker’s knowledge (Rothenberg and Drape, 2016). Davies finished the interview by stating that the amount of money bet in the illegal market may have grown, and thus many individuals are getting tempted.
To substantiate claims that tennis has always been liable to corruption, I looked at another article by Michael Mewshaw in the Daily Beast called Tennis has always been corrupt. Michael claims that the BBC and BuzzFeed News had reported that the Tennis Integrity Unit had kept secret files on some players purported of fixing matches. In the same year, eight of those players were competing in the Australian Open while the authorities had not taken any action or opened any proceedings against these individuals. Reports by The New York Times claimed that legal gambling operations took certain matches off the board due to suspicious betting patterns. The article also reveals that during the times the game was official ‘amateur,’ some players took inducements, and the often the bagmen were responsible for enforcing the rules. Even after the game became professional some players demanded bribes to compete in tournaments.
In the history of Tennis, top players have been paid to lose matches by lower ranked players, bookmakers, and gamblers. These players are paid large sums and then lose to their opponents while the gamblers make a fortune (Muspratt, 2016). In the case of Davydenko’s match against Argullero, it was pretty obvious who the favorite to win the match was. It was in 2007 when then ranked number four in the world Nikolay Davydenko, played against the Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello ranked far below and little known in the tennis world. Even before and at the start of the match, Davydenko was the favorite to win the match. As the game was going on, strange things seemed to be happening in the bookies in Russia and Italy. Davydenko had won the first set and was leading the second set, but he was still not the favorite. Some Russian and Italian gamblers continued to place huge bets of a sum of millions against Davydenko. This was very strange, and it was brought to the attention of the authorities. Betfair made all bets on the match void to the anger of the Russian gamblers who were sure of an Arguello win.
A team of experienced investigators from Britain was hired to look into the match-fixing allegations and the suspicious betting. They spent almost a year, but their findings were never made public, but a whistleblower passed the findings to BuzzFeed News and the BBC News. The contents of the inquiry gave a lot of insight on what the investigations had hatched. The investigation team lead investigator wrote that in his whole life working in the betting industry he had never seen a match or a race at such unrealistic odds. He goes on to conclude that the suspected Russian account had adequate knowledge that Arguello would ultimately win the match (Antonopoulos, 2015, p.170). In the investigations, the two players denied knowing each other. One of the Russian gamblers was approached, but he did not give much information either. He ended up threatening a Betfair personnel in Moscow. In 2008 both players were cleared of any allegations, but the matter was still far away from being finished. Phone conversations between Arguello proved that the match had been fixed and that the two players had contacted each other severally. In one of the conversations Arguello tells the gambler that Davydenko does not intend to lose the match. Later he texts the gambler saying that everything was okay. He went to win the match at greater odds making the punters very productive.
Appearance fees
These “appearance fees,” occasionally exceeded the declared the prize money and so these stars lost on purpose but end up pocketing huge sums of money than the winners. Some players and stakeholders in the tennis sport have come out openly to state the hidden facts of corruption in Tennis. One Tennis great, Bud Collins stated that tennis had been born in dishonesty and had never outgrown it. Recently Men’s tennis has legalized guarantees for players. Top players can now collect money upfront then decide how much they care about the tournament later. This is just corruption that has been legalized. Why should someone be paid just for appearing at a tournament? And why is it only the men’s tennis? These questions need answers from the very men and women who legalized guarantees while we have entrusted to run our sport and make it as transparent as possible.
Another form of corruption is conducted by the Referees and Umpires. The referees would swing their judgment towards another player openly favoring them. It may be an error from the referee, but an error after an error calls for attention. In the 2004 US Open tennis quarterfinals between Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati the linesman and the umpire made error after error. The pair made one bad call after another as the World’s best player watched in disbelief. One call after the other went for Capriati (Crouse, 2016). When a professional makes error after error it is no longer an error but match fixing or favoritism to the other player. How comes both the linesman and the umpire were making such errors given that they were refereeing such a big match at a critical stage in a huge tournament? The decisions were so egregious that they attracted the attention of US Open officials. The chair umpire was dismissed for the remainder of the tournament, and they apologized to Serena Williams for the errors (Wertheim, 2013, p.57).
Tsonga, a professional Tennis player from France, came out strongly against erroneous line called by the linesman when he faced Rafael Nadal at the Sony Ericsson Open. Tsonga claimed that the umpire’s decisions and calls were all favoring Nadal. He further goes forward to state that he lost his concentration because he became too focused on watching the lines in case he needed to challenge a ruling. Tsonga claimed that he was right most of the time he complained and the umpire never overruled. Only in obvious cases could the umpire rule against. Tsonga claimed that maybe the Umpire feared Nadal and so worked hard to impress him because if Nadal did not like him, the umpire would never get a chance to umpire in bigger matches. His claims shed much light in how the stars in the game swing the rules in their favor. Why should a player have the ability to make a choice of who will umpire his or her match? This is unfair to another player who does not have the influence may continue getting bad results not because they are not good but because the system is working against them.
The most prolific form of corruption in tennis is gambling corruption. The gambling watchdog, ESSA that collaborates with TIU released some shocking figures regarding suspicious sporting activities. A total of up to 73 tennis matches had suspicious betting patterns according to betting operators in 2015 (Rothenberg, 2016). A total of 24 tennis matches were noticed by betting firms in 2015 to be too suspicious. The suspicious activities took place in five different continents with the highest number eight from turkey and seven in Tunisia and Argentina each. These figures are worrying given that those were the only once noticed but what about the others that went unnoticed.
The likely emergent form of corruption in Tennis is match-fixing. Players are tempted to engage in match fixing to raise enough money to meet their needs. A staggering high number of tennis players earn little money that cannot meet their needs. Close to seven eighth of players earn very little money in competitions and tournaments. In most tournaments only the top twenty in tournaments get enough money that can sustain their lifestyle but the rest are forced to settle to minimal prize giving. It is thus easy to for lower ranked players to get influenced into fixing matches to get the extra amount to meet their needs. On top of the stars getting more money by securing better positions in tournaments, they are also given a lot of money as “appearance fees.”
Australia developed the Efficacy of the ‘Cheating at Gambling’ provision in a bid to protect its sports and to regulate gambling. Though the ‘Cheating at Gambling’ provision is an improvement on previous statutory approaches, shortfalls remain. There is great concern from stakeholders and lovers of sport whether the provision will adequately deal with tanking corruption and inside knowledge that has over the years taken over the sport if not embraced by some sports. Sport and gambling generate a lot of revenues especially to the Australian Government and thus attract a lot of individuals who want to capitalize on certain situations. The provision has failed to cover corrupt punters who tend to affect a betting outcome for their bets to have a larger payout. The gambling industry is very sensitive, and such a provision should be advanced enough to cover such issues that affect sport especially Tennis. Some bookmakers are found to have blacklisted some athletes who they believe are often involved in match fixing (Bloomberg, 2008,). These bookmakers will not put the matches these athletes are playing in as they may acquire many losses as a result of those events. The provision is an improvement though not yet powerful enough to bring transparency to betting and sport.
The International Tennis Federation which is the world governing body for tennis should develop proper policies to be used in governing the sport. Officials found engaging in corrupt activities should be given lifetime bans from the sports activities and open criminal charges against them in the court of law (Clark, 2016, p.30). Any member who has been given a ban should be announced publicly to avoid a repetition of Pitner’s case. ITF should collaborate more with governments to improve in their betting legislations and provisions to cover any form of betting mischief such as having inside knowledge. Players found guilty of tanking their matches should be banned immediately and their stripped of their titles. It is only by acting and punishing corrupt individuals that the sport will be transparent and not by denying allegations leveled against an individual. Linesmen and Umpires should have adequate training and provisions to guide their activities (Bruner, 2016). The introduction of technology is a positive step towards limiting errors made by Umpires. Finally, there should be no payment of guarantee fees to stars for attending tournaments.
Conclusion
Tennis is a charming game that has a huge fan base worldwide. It is rather very unfortunate that the game is rocked by corruption and bribery allegations to unscrupulous individuals. The governing body ITF should impose its judgment swiftly to make the game transparent enough. Provisions such as ‘Cheating at Gambling’ should be developed for the world to guide and control the gambling activities.
References
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Bartram, S 2014, ‘Tennis for Tots’, Parks & Recreation, 49, 5, pp. 73-75
BLOOMBERG, N 2008, ‘Ruling Favors Online Bets’, New York Times
Bruner, R 2016, ‘Watch This Tennis Player Throw an Epic Fit at Wimbledon Over Umpire’s Call
CLAREY, C 2016, ‘Barred Official Worked at U.S. Open’, New York Times, 13 February
CLAREY, C 2016, ‘Tennis’s Watchdog Seems to Operate in the Dark’, New York Times, 19 January
CLAREY, C 2016, ‘Williams Lures Focus From Match-Fixing Report’, New York Times, 18
Clark, C 2016, ‘The Edge: The War against Cheating and Corruption in the Cutthroat World of Elite Sports’, Booklist, 113, 1, pp. 26-37
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