Ftsis 2007: Life Ban For Tennis Match-fixers

Etienne de Villiers, chairman of men’s tennis tour the ATP, told the FT Sport
Industry Summit that any player found guilty of match-fixing would be ‘thrown
out of the sport for life’.

Reacting to the spate of recent press and player speculation that
match-fixing is prominent within tennis, de Villiers stated that the issue was
being looked at with the utmost seriousness and that, should any evidence come
to light, the most strenuous action will be taken.

Stated de Villiers: ‘Let’s be clear about this. Match-fixing is plain wrong.
There is no ambiguity about it like doping for example. This is not a mistake or
a doctors’ error. This is a pre-planned initiative and its plain wrong.’

De Villiers also stated that he would not be afraid to experiment with new
ways to present tennis including the use of technology and tournament structure.

He commented: ‘I got pounded in the press for introducing round robin formats
to tennis and people asking for my head but I firmly believe that you have to
experiment in order to take a sport forward. It didn’t work out but we weren’t
to know that until we tried. I experimented and I will continue to do so.’