21-year old Egyptian ranked 820 ATP singles committed 21 breaches of anti-corruption rules
Egyptian tennis player Youssef Hossam has been banned from professional tennis for life following his conviction on multiple match-fixing and associated corruption charges.
Independent Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer Jane Mulcahy QC imposed the lifetime sanction following a disciplinary Hearing held in London from 9th to 11th March 2020.
A Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) investigation established that over a four-year period between 2015 and 2019, Mr Hossam conspired with other parties to carry out an extensive campaign of betting-related corruption at the lower levels of professional tennis. This involved 21 breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program, namely:
- eight cases of match-fixing
- six cases of facilitating gambling
- two cases of soliciting other players not to use best efforts
- three failures to report corrupt approaches
- two failures to co-operate with a TIU investigation.
As a result of his conviction, Mr Hossam is now permanently excluded from competing in or attending any sanctioned tennis event organised or recognised by the governing bodies of the sport.
He has been provisionally suspended from all professional tennis since May 2019, as a result of concerns about his alleged involvement in corruption.
The 21-year old is currently ranked 820 in ATP singles and reached a career-high of 291 in December 2017.
The breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program he has committed relate to:
Section D.1.b: “No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, solicit or facilitate any other person to wager on the outcome or any other aspect of any Event or any other tennis competition. For the avoidance of doubt, to solicit or facilitate to wager shall include, but not be limited to: display of live tennis betting odds on a Covered Person website; writing articles for a tennis betting publication or website; conducting personal appearances for a tennis betting company; and appearing in commercials encouraging others to bet on tennis.”
Section D.1.d: No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, contrive or attempt to contrive the outcome or any other aspect of any Event”.
Section D.1.e: “No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, solicit or facilitate any Player to not use his or her best efforts in any Event”.
Section D.2.a.i: In the event any Player is approached by any person who offers or provides any type of money, benefit or Consideration to a Player (i) influence the outcome or any other aspect of any Event, or (ii) provide Inside Information, it shall be the Player’s obligation to report such incident to the TIU as soon as possible.”
Section F.2.b: “All Covered Persons must co-operate fully with investigations conducted by the TIU including giving evidence at hearings, if requested. After a Covered Person receives a TIU request for an initial interview or otherwise becomes aware of any TIU investigation involving the Covered Person, the Covered Person shall (i) preserve and not tamper with, damage, disable, destroy or otherwise alter any evidence (including any personal devices described in Section F.2.c.i) or other information related to any Corruption Offense and (ii) not solicit, facilitate or advise any other person to fail to preserve, tamper with, damage, disable, destroy or otherwise alter any evidence or other information related to any Corruption Offense”.
The Tennis Integrity Unit is an initiative of the Grand Slam Board, the International Tennis Federation, the ATP and the WTA, who are jointly committed to a zero tolerance approach to corruption in tennis.
Ends
Published 04 May 2020 17:00
