2024-08-07 03:01:00
Argentine tennis remains on alert: Two national players were suspended for corruption in the context of match-fixing. They are Sofía Luini and Melina Ferrero, both 31 years old, the first two women who received a sanction from the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), the body created in 2007 to safeguard the integrity of sport worldwide.
With these two new cases Argentina has no less than eight tennis players punished for involvement in corruption issuesa figure that places it in second place internationally among the countries with the highest number of sanctions, after France.
The two new sanctions are directly related to a criminal case, recently concluded, involving a match-fixing unit in Belgium. The case, whose magnitude continues to leave repercussions with more sanctions, was resolved following a joint collaboration between the ITIA and the Belgian authorities, an investigation that led to A five-year prison sentence for the mafia leadernamed Grigor Sargsyan.
Luini, who would become the 492nd singles player of the WTA rankings in 2014, challenged the 24 charges brought against her by the ITIA, all related to six matches that took place in 2017 and 2018. The charges included facilitating betting, manipulating the course of matches, accepting money for not giving maximum sporting effort and failing to report corrupt approaches.
On May 15, there was a hearing by videoconference, conducted by Diana Tesic, the independent Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer (AHO) who confirmed 22 charges against him and imposed a seven-year suspension and a fine of 30 thousand dollars. Luini’s represents the second biggest sanction for an Argentine tennis player in cases of corruption behind the Franco Feitt banned for life in 2021.
Luini’s last professional appearance on the international stage was in September 2022, at a $15,000 ITF in Eldorado, Misiones. At the end of that same year he was crowned in the finals of the First Division Interclubs of the Argentine Tennis Association (AAT) as part of the team Saint Lawrence of Almagroa club where César Francis, none other than the Administrative Secretary of the entity that governs tennis at a national level, is usually active. Wearing the Ciclón jersey, he had won the third championship in 2019 in a luxury team made up of players like Nadia Podoroska, Guillermina Naya, Catalina Pella, Jasmine Ortenzi, Julieta Estable and Melina Ferrero herself.
Last season she came to play, invited by the organization, nothing less than the qualifying for the Argentina Open women’s tournament, the most important tournament in the country. She was also a regular player – and winner – of the tournaments Making Tennis, which correspond to the country’s professional circuit and are produced by the AATwith prizes in local currency and points for the national ranking.
Since a time ago He is dedicated to professional padel at a certain level. In April of this season, for example, he performed at the FIP Rise in Buenos Aires held at the Lasaigues Pádel in Canning, which awarded wild cards to the Premier Pádel de Mar del Plata, the most important international event in Argentina – he fell in the first round, paired with Sol Capello. His ban for match-fixing will expire on July 22, 2031.
Ferrero, The player who was ranked as high as 731st in the WTA singles rankings in 2015, acted differently. He did not respond to the 12 charges that were confirmed against him, linked to three parties between 2017 and 2018, The ITIA therefore considers that it has admitted liability and agreed to the sanctions: three seasons suspension and a fine of 15 thousand dollarsa punishment also confirmed at the May hearing.
His case is also linked to facilitating betting and manipulating the outcome of matches.accepting money for not giving maximum sporting effort and not reporting bribery attempts. Also quite frequently in the Making Tennis, The last international caliber appearance he recorded was five years ago, in 2019.in an ITF worth 15 thousand dollars in prizes held in Obras. Graduated in international relations, she is now based in Barcelona. His sanction will end on July 22, 2027.
The suspension of Luini and Ferrero implies the prohibition to play, train or attend any authorized tennis competition by the seven tennis powers that are members of the ITIA: ATP, ITF, WTA, Tennis Australia, the French Tennis Federation (FFT), Wimbledon and the United States Tennis Association (USTA).
Argentina, in debt
With a historic international presence among the tennis powers, Argentina has a scourge that it cannot boast about: With eight suspensions between 2018 and 2024, it is the second country with the highest number of players punished for involvement in match-fixing issues. At a rate of more than one sanction per season, there will be many more, with several investigations underway.
Before Luini and Ferrerosix men were stained: the first three, in 2018, were Nicholas Kicker (three years; reduced to two years and eight months; “I have a second chance”), Patricio Heras (three years) and Federico Coria (two months for not reporting a bribery attempt); in 2021 they fell Franco Feitt (marginalized for life) y Nicolas Arreche (they gave him four years); and in May of this year Agustin Torre was punished (five years; also involved as an intermediary between mafias and colleagues).
Betting mafias operate with great freedom in the micro world of tennis and, although they are persecuted by the ITIA, They ensure that the main victims are the players themselves in a sport marked by economic inequalitywith a huge difference in prize money between the few who can make a living from tennis and the vast majority who live day to day.
In February 2019, after the first three sanctions, the top leaders of the Argentine Tennis Association (AAT), President Agustín Calleri and Vice President Mariano Zabaleta, They held a press conference at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club to explain How would they help to eradicate the problem and raise awareness among the youngest? to avoid falling into the temptations of easy money. The issue was already beginning to represent a concern at the national level.
spread had met in Buenos Aires, days before, with representatives of ITIA -then called the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU)- to diagram a protocol that would lead to the disappearance of the gambling epidemic and train young people in the transition to professionalism. “The TIU proposes that kids report when they receive offers of arrangements, But nobody likes to be in that situation. So they started bringing in referees and tournament directors to make complaints,” said the former tennis player from Tandil at the time.
And he added: “You have to educate children so that they can react. As part of the Association we have to be much more present and kill us so that, on the economic side, “the kids are better covered and not so unprotected.” Calleri, on the other hand, maintained: “You have to explain to the kids what happens when you get into that world. They are mafias. We need to start working to prevent this kind of thing. We want kids to be aware of what can happen if they get involved in that.”
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