Wimbledon rejects BBC match-fixing allegations

Officials cast doubt on some of report’s evidence and are confident their tournament is clean

(Getty Images)

The two most senior figures at Wimbledon acknowledge that the last 10 days “have not been great for the sport”, but Philip Brook and Richard Lewis are confident on at least one point. Contrary to the claim – made in last week’s much-publicised investigation into corruption in tennis – that matches at Wimbledon are among those that have been fixed, the chairman and chief executive of the All England Club are satisfied that is not the case.

While Lewis does not underestimate the size of the challenge tennis faces in combating corruption – “We are fighting a war,” he said, “not a battle but a war” – he insisted, in reference to the Wimbledon matches that were said to have aroused investigators’ suspicions: “My understanding of the analysis of the betting patterns was that it wasn’t over the top or extreme. You can only go by what the professionals say, but my understanding is that the investigators who looked into that were pretty confident that it was OK.”

Brook and Lewis attended a Melbourne summit meeting yesterday between representatives of the four Grand Slam tournaments, the International Tennis Federation and the men’s and women’s tours. Corruption was high on the agenda following the publication of the investigation by the BBC and BuzzFeed News, who claimed that match-fixing at the highest level of tennis was “widespread” but had been covered up.

Among the allegations, the report identified three matches at Wimbledon which it suspected had been targeted by Russian and Italian gambling syndicates. Considering the All England Club’s special relationship with the BBC, which has covered the Championships since 1937, Wimbledon might have expected to be given more than a few days’ notice about the contents of the report.

Choosing his words carefully, Lewis said: “I think we have to respect the independence of the BBC. It would be hypocrisy for us not to want the BBC to be independent. Personally, I thought that there were a couple of aspects of the report that were, in the cold light of day, questionable. I’m surprised the BBC used certain aspects.”

The governing bodies of tennis and the four Grand Slam tournaments set up the Tennis Integrity Unit eight years ago with the aim of rooting out corruption. Brook, in his Wimbledon role, heads the board which runs the unit and is a great believer in the quality of its work.

However, he added: “The way we [at Wimbledon] think as an organisation – and I think many of the other people in tennis leadership think similarly as well – is that you can always improve. For sure, there are things in any organisation that can be done better, and as for tennis integrity I think we have to look seriously now at how we can improve what we already think is a good system.”

Are five investigators enough for a sport in which more than 100,000 matches are played every year? “It’s not just the five people,” Brook said. “They do have relationships with the betting companies and there are people from the sport on site whenever a tournament is played. So I think it isn’t entirely fair to portray it as these five people on their own, because that isn’t how they work. Whether the sport could do with more resources, I think is a good question.”

Brook said the TIU had always received the funding it had requested and added: “I would be very surprised if the sport wasn’t prepared to fund it in the way that it needs to be funded, going forward.”

The Wimbledon chairman rejected outright the allegation that there had been a cover-up. “None of us recognise that as a possibility,” he said. “You can argue whether there are enough resources in the unit to really stamp this out. I think that’s a more interesting question.”

With William Hill sponsoring the Australian Open, Brook was asked whether Wimbledon would ever contemplate a partnership with a betting company. “I think it’s extremely unlikely – and that isn’t to comment on anybody else,” he said. “The thing to remember about Wimbledon is that we are a little bit different in lots of ways. Our whole commercial programme, from start to finish, is very different [in] how we manage it and present it [compared with] any of the other Grand Slams.”