General / Scott Ferguson / 01 October 2007 /

Scott's Spot - Scott looks at the effect the relevations of corruption will have on the sport of tennis

The foul smell of match-fixing won't go away in the tennis world as it was revealed this week that two Belgian players had been approached to throw matches.

According to a newspaper report, Gilles Elseneer, a battler on the circuit at best, was offered £70k to throw his first-round match at Wimbledon, more than ten times what he'd earn by losing the match, after qualifying for the world's most prestigious tournament - almost certainly the greatest achievement of his career. A poor choice by the crooks in this case - money can only do so much but to be able to play on the sacred lawn of Wimbledon (remember qualifying is held at other venues) is the highlight of most tennis players' careers.

The extent of the problem, also according to a newspaper publication last week, was illustrated when Dick Norman, the giant Belgian journeyman, confessed he'd been offered a large sum of money to throw a match in an Italian challenger event several years ago. For a player battling for cash and struggling to make an impact, the offer would be much more tempting than to give up your dream at Wimbledon.

One has to think that underground bookmakers were involved in either the fix or the sting for the Italian event - betting on challenger events is limited now let alone before internet betting took off. And most continental bookmakers rarely offered anything less than trebles on matches, so it's hard to imagine a licensed firm getting stung in the mix.

The recent trend of players admitting they'd been approached and declined is a positive one. At last the issue is out in the open and it's not the odd one-off event that tennis authorities were hoping for. Go through every player who has been in the top 150 over the past five years and I'd be surprised if the number of players who have been approached is less than the number who haven't. When 'professional' sportsmen are battling to make a living and people are making money from betting, the temptation and the offers will always be there. Particularly when tennis has become one of the hardest sports on the body over the length of a career.

We've all got our suspicions about players who've not performed in certain matches but I'm confident the vast majority of players reject the offer immediately.

Just like athletics, cricket, cycling and horse racing, when something dodgy is going on, a major scandal is usually required to bust it all open. Authorities almost always want to keep it quiet but eventually something's gotta give. Cricket and horse racing are undoubtedly cleaner than they were five years ago. Athletics and cycling are still struggling to deal with it as they spread over many jurisdictions with different laws and investuagtive procedures and the sports are more about the individual.

Let's hope that tennis reaches that watershed moment soon where it's all out in the open and someone is caught with their pants down and severely punished.

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