Tennis umpire banned for life after breaching 21 codes of Anti-Corruption program

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has confirmed that a Bulgarian official has been banned from the sport for life after breaching more than 20 rules of the Tennis Anti-Corruption program. Lower-tier tennis remains one of the most affected sports in the world when it comes to batting previously, a report suggested that as many as 180 players participating in lower-grade tournaments were involved in different kinds of match-fixing.

As per the latest report, Pavel Atanasov was banned from the sport for breaching the rules to facilitate betting. The report stated that Atanasov, who ended up admitting to the charges in the investigation, conducted multiple offences including changing the scoring date to assist in betting on tennis matches which is an offence according to the Tennis Anti-Corruption Code.

“The International Tennis Integrity Agency can confirm that Bulgarian tennis official Pavel Atanasov has been banned from the sport for life following 21 breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program,” the statement read on Friday. “In withdrawing from proceedings, Atanasov effectively admitted liability for numerous TACP offences between 2019 and 2023. Including the manipulation of scoring data of matches for betting purposes, facilitating wagering, conspiring to commit corruption offences, wagering on tennis matches, and failure to report corrupt approaches.”