TIU takes action against chair umpire e tournament director for offences

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The Tennis Integrity Unit has fined and suspended a Belarusian chair umpire and a Greek tournament director for match-fixing and betting offences, according to a press release from the TIU.

Tennis Integrity Unit takes action against a Belarusian chair umpire and a Greek tournament director

Belarusian chair umpire Alexey Izotov was suspended for three years and fined USD 10,000 for failing to report a corrupt approach and of soliciting other umpires to become involved in manipulation of match scoring. The TIU said that 22 year old Izotov failed to report a corrupt approach he received in November 2019 while he was officiating as a chair umpire at a W25 ITF Women’s event in Minsk, Belarus. The approach offered him payment in return for delaying the inputting of scores to his PDA device, to facilitate other parties to bet on matches. Besides failing to report the approach, he subsequently made a similar offer to other officials.  

Meanwhile, Tournament director Antonis Kalaitzakis was suspended for 20 months and fined USD 6,000 after admitting to betting on tennis and failing to report knowledge or suspicion of corruption to the Tennis Integrity Unit.  The TIU has suspended four months of the suspension and USD 3,000 of the fine on the condition that no further breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program are committed. Kalaitzakis, 37, is a tournament director for ITF events in Greece.

The TIU said Kalaitzakis held online betting accounts through which he placed 127 wagers on matches between 2013 and 2016, in breach of laws that prohbit any form of betting on tennis matches by officials. He was also found to have failed to report knowledge or suspicion of corruption by a third party.

The Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) is the anti-corruption body covering all professional tennis around the world. It is responsible for enforcing the sport’s zero-tolerance policy on betting-related corruption. In doing so it has three main strategic priorities – preventing corruption from taking place; investigation and prosecution of offenders; delivering anti-corruption education for players and stakeholders to recognise and report corrupt activity. The TIU is an operationally independent organisation reporting to an independent Supervisory Board. Based in London, it is funded by the sport's seven major stakeholders – the International Tennis Federation, the ATP, the WTA, the Australian Open,  the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/30sZcJs

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