A French tennis player has been handed a 20-year suspension by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA).
Quentin Folliot was found in breach of 27 regulations under the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP), allegedly part of a network of professional players operating on behalf of a match-fixing syndicate.
With Folliot, this makes a total of six players sanctioned as part of the ITIA investigation, including Jaimee Floyd-Angele, Paul Valsecchi, Luc Fomba, Lucas Bouquet and Enzo Rimoli.
Apart from the two-decade suspension, Folliot has also been fined $70,000 and ordered to recover more than $44,000 in corrupt payments. The charges related to a total of 11 of matches that took place between 2022 and 2024, eight of which Folliot was a part of.
Breaches included contriving the outcome of matches, taking bribes to perform in a certain way for betting purposes, offering match-fixing money to other players, failure to co-operate with the ITIA in the investigation, and destruction of evidence.
Folliot rejected the claims, but a remote hearing held earlier in October saw independent Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer (AHO) Amani Khalifa uphold 27 of the 30 charges in relation to 10 of the 11 matches.
AHO Khalifa published a written statement at the start of December, where she called Folliot “a vector for a wider criminal syndicate, actively recruiting other players and attempting to embed corruption more deeply into the professional tours.”
The 20–year suspension restricts Folliot from participating in, coaching at, or attending any tennis event authorised or sanctioned by any of ITIA’s members, including the ATP and the WTA, as well as by any national association. Since he’s currently 26, he’ll probably miss out the chance to have any significant professional career going forward.
Tennis remains a very lucrative sport for match-fixing criminals, with the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) placing it first alongside football in the global risk scale. This is a trend going back many years.