Sports have once again been the victim of match-fixing, with two high profile cases hitting the news over the last few days.
In the world of tennis, 25-year-old Chinese international Pang Renlong was given a 12-year ban by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) over corruption charges relating to 22 matches between May and September last year. In addition, he will also have to pay a fine of $40,000, with $70,000 more if he’s found violating his suspension.
According to the ITIA, Renlong self-admitted to purposefully altering the results in five of his single games at the ITF World Tennis Tour M15, M25, and the ATP Challenger 50 level. He was also found guilty of match-fixing coercion, approaching 17 other individuals that led to six more matches being fixed.
With the ITIA usually taking such violations seriously, Renlong has been banned until 2036 from playing in, coaching at, or attending any event that is sanctioned by the ATP, ITF, WTA, Tennis Australia, Fédération Française de Tennis, Wimbledon and USTA, or any national association for that matter.
Football sometimes isn’t a team sport
Moving over to football, four players from Australia’s A-League – the highest level of Australian football – have also been charged with offences relating to match-fixing.
Former Macarthur FC players Kearyn Baccus and Clayton Lewis have been given a five-year ban by Football Australia, which will be counted from May 2024.
The reason being is that both players were in the process of waiting for an official ruling by the football authority after already being found to have participated in a game against Sydney FC back in 2023, where they got paid AU$10,000 each to receive a booking. Both players have also agreed to do 200 hours of unpaid community service.
Japanese nationals Riku Danzaki and Yuta Hirayama are the second sanctioned duo, banned from football for seven years.
According to authorities, former Western United player Danzaki made a deal with Hirayama, who is an amateur footballer, that saw the former deliberately booking himself with yellow cards during various matches between April and May of this year. Bets placed by Hirayama resulted in total winnings of AU$16,000.
Reports by leading integrity watchdogs such as Sportradar and the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) place football and tennis as the top two sports at most risk of corruption worldwide.