A TENNIS umpire has been banned for LIFE for outrageous acts of cheating.
The Dominican official was found guilty of manipulating the scoring of matches in 2019 as part of a betting scandal.
GettyA tennis chair umpire has been given a lifetime ban for 16 breaches of anti-corruption rules[/caption]
And now the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) have slapped him with a permanent ban.
Fabian Carrero committed 16 breaches of tennis’ anti-corruption programme across eight matches in ITF tournaments held in the Dominican Republic in November and December 2019.
Chair umpire Carrero duped the match scoring in a handheld device to facilitate guaranteed betting wins on specific points, the ITIA said in a statement.
He had been suspended since March last year while the case proceeded.
Now he will never again be allowed to officiate or attend events organised by tennis governing bodies.
The clauses Carrero breached include: “No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, contrive, attempt to contrive, agree to contrive, or conspire to contrive the outcome, or any other aspect, of any Event.”
And clause D.2.b.i adds: “In the event any Related Person or Tournament Support Person is approached by any person who offers or provides any type of money, benefit or Consideration to a Related Person or Tournament Support Person to (i) influence or attempt to influence the outcome of any aspect of any Event, or (ii) provide Inside Information, it shall be the Related Person’s or Tournament Support Person’s obligation to report such incident to the TIU [now ITIA] as soon as possible.”
The ITIA, based at the LTA’s headquarters in Roehampton, was established in 2021 to safeguard the sport.
All four Grand Slams, the ATP, WTA and ITF came together to fund the agency with the view to stamping out corruption and doping.
British doubles player Tara Moore was suspended by the ITIA last June for two alleged anti-doping violations in drug tests.
And former Wimbledon champion Simona Halep was also barred when the illegal substance Roxadustat was detected in the Romanian.
Halep’s suspension was the most high-profile drugs bust in top-level tennis since Maria Sharapova was banned from the sport for 15 months for testing positive for meldonium.
Halep said in a Twitter statement in October: “Today begins the hardest match of my life. A fight for the truth.
“Throughout my whole career, the idea of cheating never even crossed my mind once, as it is totally against all the values I have been educated with.
“Facing such an unfair situation, I felt completely confused and betrayed.
“I will fight until the end to prove that I never knowingly took any prohibited substance and I have faith that sooner or later, the truth will come out.”