ITIA bans Bolivian umpire for 12 years

Tennis is one of the most troubled sports when it comes to match-fixing, but regulators are working with surgical precision and consistency.

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has handed down another penalty, to Percy Flores, a Bolivian tennis official, who has now been suspended for 12 years and fined $15,000 as he was found to be in breach of several integrity and anti-corruption rules outlined by the organization.

The breaches are registered against the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program which is established to direct players and members of staff as to what an ethical and fair way of conducting global tennis’ affairs is. Flores was found to be in 31 breaches of ITIA’s rules in the period between November 2021 and October 2022.

His offenses include but aren’t limited to the manipulation of scores to ensure certain betting outcomes by entering the wrong score purposefully in his official records. Flores did not protest against the decision and the penalty has now been assigned with a backdate of December 8, 2022, meaning that the earliest Flores can return to any ITIA event is December7, 2034, a career-ending move for him.

ITIA has been working hard to ensure that it continues to tackle the number of illegal practices and corruption within the sport. Tennis is often cited by IBIA as one of the leading sports where fraudsters engage in corrupt practices. To this end, the watchdog has also been beefing up its understanding of the sport and working hard to promote a healthier culture from within.

ITIA has recently teamed up with the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and will now work with the organization to help educate younger players and emphasize the importance of integrity. All players that have an active Juniors International Player Identification Number will have to pass a mandatory education module before they can compete.

This is done in a bid to ensure that players are aware of the dangers of sports gambling from the youngest possible age so that they can avoid such situations. Players are also being taught how to report incidents where individuals approach them with an offer to participate in match-fixing or other forms of fraud.

Previously, ITIA has issued even stricter penalties to umpires who have been breaching the organization’s rules. In the case of Fabián Carrero, a tennis chair umpire from the Dominican Republic, ITIA issued a lifetime penalty to the offender.

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