Egyptian tennis player banned for life

LONDON: Egyptian player Youssef Hossam has been banned from professional tennis for life for match-fixing, two years after his brother was also permanently excluded from the sport on corruption charges.

A statement from the Tennis Integrity Unit said the 21-year-old Hossam, provisionally suspended since May 2019, had been banned for life following his conviction on multiple match-fixing and associated corruption charges.

The punishment was imposed by Jane Mulcahy QC following a three-day disciplinary hearing in March.

A TIU investigation revealed that in the four years from 2015-2019, Hossam “conspired with other parties to carry out an extensive campaign of betting-related corruption at the lower levels of professional tennis”. These involved 21 breaches of tennis’ anti-corruption programme, including eight cases of match fixing, six of facilitating gambling, two of soliciting other players not to use best efforts, three failures to report corrupt approaches and two failures to co-operate with a TIU investigation.