Tennis umpire suspended for betting on matches, including one he officiated
After being found to be in violation of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP) guidelines, Bulgarian chair umpire Stefan Milanov has been suspended for six months by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA). The umpire has also been slapped with a $10,000 fine, with $5000 suspended, after he was found guilty of betting on tennis on multiple occasions, including a match in which he was officiating.
There have been an alarming number of such corruption incidents involving tennis umpires this year. ©Moises Alex/Unsplash
Milanov admitted to the violations and the duration of his suspension has been set to six months, starting from November 15, 2022, which means Milanov will be away from the courts until May 14, 2023. In this time, the Bulgarian is forbidden to officiate in or be in proximity of any officially sanctioned tennis events.
Section D.1.a of the 2022 TACP guidelines prohibits all officials under ITIA from directly or indirectly placing bets on the actions or results of any kind of tennis activity, not least ones in which they are officiating.
ITIA has handed multiple suspensions this year
Milanov is not the only official the ITIA has suspended this year. Four months ago, national-level chair and line umpire Lorenzo Chiurazzi was handed a suspension of seven years and six months after he was found guilty of match-fixing. Apart from that, the Italian official was also charged a fine of $50,000, with $33,500 suspended.
A month later, the ITIA banned former player and tennis coach Sebastian Rivera for life on account of several match-fixing violations. The Chilean was alleged to have committed 64 offences – the highest number of offences ITIA, or its predecessor TIU (Tennis Integrity Unit), has ever detected for a player. The permanent ban also came with a huge $250,000 fine.
In July 2022, three Tunisian chair umpires were banned because of match-fixing allegations. The officials were found guilty of manipulating scores on their devices. One of them, a Green Badge chair umpire Majd Affi, was found responsible for 12 violations between 2017 and 2020 and received a 20-year suspension. The others involved were suspended for seven years each.
But perhaps none of these were as severely denting to the reputation of the sport than the case of Spanish player Fernando Bogajo Fernandez, who admitted to match-fixing and was suspended by the ITIA, alongside picking up a reputation of ‘not producing his best efforts to win a match’ during the period of investigation.
People associated with pro sports have been slipping up
It’s no secret why those involved in professional sports are so strictly prohibited from betting on sporting outcomes. This is particularly important if they’re involved in the very top rung of a sport that is likely to have more betting attention than other levels, and consequently a bigger scope for both financial losses and corruption.
Lately, football has been in the spotlight for the same after English striker Ivan Toney was charged with breaching the English Football Association’s (FA) guidelines 232 times. The 26-year-old who plays for Brentford placed these bets between 2017 and 2021.
As the news surfaced, Toney was not included in England’s national squad for the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar despite an impressive performance with Brentford in the English Premier League this season. This is not the first time a football player has been found flouting the guidelines set forth by an Association.
Kieran Trippier – a player who is part of England’s squad at the ongoing World Cup – was involved in a betting-related controversy in 2020. Right before his move from Tottenham Hotspur to Atletico Madrid, Trippier had dropped a few hints about the transfer to his friends via WhatsApp. After getting his phone confiscated during a thorough investigation conducted by the FA, the full-back had been suspended for 10 weeks and fined £70,000.
