Tennis: French players approached to lose a set for €2,000 to €3,000
An investigation by France Info reveals how foreign networks are corrupting vulnerable players on the Challenger and Future circuit circuits, during Roland Garros.
Fixed matches: French professional tennis faces systematic corruption
According to an investigation by France Info published at the opening of Roland Garros, international corruption networks are targeting French professional players competing in lower-tier tournaments, the Challenger and Future circuits. Players are approached and paid between €2,000 and €3,000 to lose a game, a set or an entire match.
The winners of the men's and women's singles at Roland Garros will each take home €2.8 million. But behind this façade, a large part of the professional circuit operates in precarity that renders it vulnerable to corruption.
A young pro who pays out of his own pocket
Loann Massard, 20, illustrates this point. In May, he is competing in his 12th tournament in four months, in Saint-Dizier, in Haute-Marne. He has played near Lille, in Germany, in Scotland, in Toulouse, in Poitiers. "I will probably go to Tunisia," he confides. Each trip costs him between €300 and €1,000 — transport, accommodation, food, strings, and entry fees all at his own expense.
If he wins in the first round, he receives €200. If he wins the tournament, he will earn "perhaps €3,500". He remains clear-eyed: "You have to win it. The level is very high, there are top 200 ATP players competing in the tournament. They have already played in Grand Slams, so it's extremely tough."
70th French player, 650th in the world, Massard can only continue his career thanks to financial support from his mother. Yet he refused solicitations from corruptors. "On social networks, it happened to me once or twice that someone would approach me to ask me to deliberately lose the set in exchange for a large sum of money: at least €5,000," he recounts. He did not pursue it. Others, in similar situations, accepted.
The "Match Point" investigation
The investigation dubbed "Match Point," being conducted by the police judicial service's racing and gaming division, is still ongoing. It covers more than two years of investigations, around forty allegedly fixed matches, 18 police custody operations and 14 French players suspected.
Commissioner General Stéphane Piallat describes how it operates. The network mastermind, based in a neighbouring country, is "most of the time" a former tennis player, who contacts former training partners. "They make them financial proposals, telling them they will pay them €2,000-€3,000" to lose a game, a set or a match. The network then encourages the recruited players to expand the circle: "If you have people you trust in your professional environment, we can expand the corruption."
Once contacts are established, bettors are sent to place bets on the matches. For just six fixed matches, investigators estimate at least €800,000 in direct profit for the network mastermind. The alert signal can come from the betting platforms themselves: when a small tournament in Rodez — forbidden for betting in France — attracts bets from across Europe, anomalies become visible. "A community started betting incredibly heavily on a match, in a particular location, which created cause for questioning," investigators explain.
Evidence in video recordings
Analysis of financial flows confirms the suspicions. Investigators then view match recordings in search of behavioural anomalies. "It can be an absolutely incredible number of double faults, or else the player will fall backwards instead of hitting a basic forehand," they explain.
Cooperation with European police forces established that several suspects appear in similar cases in Belgium and Spain. Seven international arrest warrants have been issued.
ITIA sanctions, and a reconversion to padel
None of the players involved in the "Match Point" investigation or in other cases agreed to respond to France Info's solicitations. One of them, who no longer plays, limited himself to this sentence: "That's all behind me."
Alongside judicial proceedings, the ITIA — the International Tennis Integrity Agency, based in London — issues its own sanctions, which can extend to a lifetime ban. "The sanction will depend on the number of fixed matches, whether the players recruited others or not, whether they were young, therefore perhaps under influence. The idea is to demonstrate that we are uncovering cases of cheating and that we are doing what is necessary to protect the sport and the athletes," explains Karen Moorhouse, director of the ITIA.
At least ten French players are currently subject to a suspension pronounced by the ITIA. Several of them have migrated to the padel circuit, which does not fall under the International Tennis Federation.
Source: France Info