In tennis, showed signs of match-fixing – BBC Russian

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Image caption Among the documents, reports BBC BBC and BuzzFeed News, there are results investigation conducted in 2007 ATP

Available Bi-bi-si and BuzzFeed News were documents containing evidence that in tennis high level is widespread match-fixing.

Over the past 10 years, the Division for the ethical standards of Tennis (Tennis Integrity Unit TIU) received repeated warnings that the 16 players who belonged at different times in the top 50, taking participation in contractual matches.

All of them, including the winner of the tournament “Grand Slam”, were allowed to continue taking part in the competition.

TIU, established to monitor compliance with ethical the rules in tennis, says that adheres to a policy of zero tolerance for corruption related to the bookies.

Among the documents, reports BBC BBC and BuzzFeed News, have the results of an investigation conducted in 2007 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

The investigation considered the distribution of suspicious betting round match between Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello. The investigation concluded that both players did not break any rules, but the investigation was expanded and examined the relationship between gamblers and tennis players of higher rank.

Image caption Head ATP Chris Kermode told BBC BBC that he was aware that some of the tennis matches are contractual, but says that the frequency of such incidents is to” extremely low. ”

The resulting Bi-bi-si documents show Gambling syndicates in Russia, in the north of Italy and in Sicily, which earned hundreds of thousands of pounds, making bets on which , as the authors of the investigation were negotiable. Three of them took place in Wimbledon.

In a confidential report submitted to the leadership of the tennis sport in 2008, it said that there should be an investigation into the 28 players who took part in these games, but no action was taken. In 2009, ATP has adopted a new anti-corruption rules, however, after consultation with counsel, was informed that he could not give effect to the charges relating to the past.

“As a result, no new investigations into the tennis players mentioned in the 2008 report was not initiated, “- said the representative of the TIU.

In the following years TIU repeatedly informed of the suspicions about a third of these players. No disciplinary action against any of them have been adopted.

The group are dissatisfied with this situation in tennis circles sources, who requested anonymity, recently handed these documents Bi-bi-si and BuzzFeed News. We caught up with Mark Phillips, who in 2007 was part of the commission that investigated the activity of gamblers. He told BBC BBC that the Commission has identified suspicious patterns in the activities of gamblers in the games associated with a certain group of athletes.

“[It] has a core team of about 10 tennis players who we thought were the most frequent violators and the root of the problem, “- he said.

Sam Phillips never made public statements about his collection of material which, according to him was no less compelling than anything that he had seen in 20 years of investigations in the sweepstakes.

“The evidence was very compelling. He was a very good chance to crush it in the bud, which would be a strong deterrent and will get rid of the worst offenders”, – he said.

Image caption Mark Phillips, bookmaker analyst, worked in the commission that examined the suspicious betting in tennis

Bi-bi-si and BuzzFeed News also received a list of names of other tennis players, about which the bookies, sports ethics committees and professional gamblers have repeatedly sent to the TIU complaints and reports of suspicious activity.

Many of the tennis players were seen in participating in suspicious matches the direction of the tennis sport in 2003.

Bi-bi-si and BuzzFeed News decided not to publish the names of the tennis players, because without access to their telephone and bank accounts and computers is impossible to establish whether they accept personally participated in match-fixing.

However, the TIU shall have the right to request all the data have any professional tennis player.

“There is an element of desire does not wash dirty linen in public “, – says Benn Gunn, a former police officer who led the investigation into suspicious betting in tennis, which in turn led to the creation of TIU.

It is the first time publicly expressed their concerns.

Image caption In 2011, Daniel Kёllereru was banned for life to take part in professional tennis on charges of involvement in a contractual match. He denies all the charges.

“If they seriously want to deal with it, then they need to create a department to comply with ethical standards, endowed with real power”, – he said.

European Association for Safety of Sports (European Sports Security Association – ESSA), which monitors interest rates for the leading bookmakers reported TIU on more than 50 suspicious matches in 2015.

ESSA says that tennis attracts more suspicious betting activity than any other sport.

Director of TIU Nigel Willerton said that while he welcomed the support of the bookmakers in function betting companies not included to make judgments about the corrupt activities “.

“All credible information that gets TIU, analyzed, evaluated and studied very experienced investigators who used to work in the police,” – said Willerton.

The problem of suspicious betting and match-fixing and will not disappear. Eight of tennis, which receives regular complaints to the TIU, will take part in the Australian Open, which begins January 18.