A tennis umpire from the Dominican Republic has been permanently banned from officiating any tennis event after he was found guilty of manipulating match scores. To be a referee in tennis, one needs to follow the rules and guidelines of the International Tennis Federation. On the 29th of March, 2023, a referee was found guilty of manipulating the scores at a tennis event held in 2019. The case had taken a long course due to the investigations that took place before the umpire was found guilty of his crime.
Fabián Carrero was found guilty of manipulating the scores of matches that happened in 2019. The committee investigating the case found evidence that Fabián Carrero violated 16 rules of tennis' anti-corruption program across eight games in tournaments hosted in the Dominican Republic. The matches where Fabián Carrero manipulated the scores happened between November and December 2019.
According to a statement from the International Tennis Integrity Agency, Fabián Carrero carried out the infamous act through a handheld device "to facilitate guaranteed betting wins on specific points." After the International Tennis Integrity Agency found him guilty of what he was accused of, Fabián Carrero was banned from attending any event organized by the International Tennis Federation. Fraud committed by chair umpire tennis officials is a crime that the governing body is trying to curb. The case involving Fabián Carrero isn't the only instance of umpires taking bribes to change the scores in a tennis match. However, the International Tennis Integrity Agency has been cracking down on umpires found guilty of committing such crimes.
Another Case of Umpire Manipulation
The Fabián Carrero incident wasn't the only case of tennis umpires manipulating the scores of an event. In most cases, these tennis umpires commit crimes after being paid by betting companies. These betting companies pay the umpires so they can change the score to suit their predictions of the game.
Another case happened in 2020 when Portuguese tennis chair umpire Daniel Zeferino was found guilty of match-fixing. The umpire would manipulate the game scores to the predictions of punters at a betting company. At an ITF M15 event in 2020, evidence showed that the Portuguese umpire changed the scores of the game to suit a betting company that paid him some money.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency issued a statement showing its stance on the issue of umpires manipulating scores. The Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP) already has regulations that guide every umpire.
Section D.1.b of the regulation reads, "No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, facilitate any other person to wager on the outcome or any other aspect of any Event or any other tennis competition. For the avoidance of doubt, to facilitate a person to wager shall include, but not be limited to: the display of live tennis betting odds on a Covered Person’s website; repeated transmissions of the contemporaneous results of any aspect of any Event without the consent of any Governing Body (“Courtsiding”)."
In addition to this, Section D.1.d was more direct in what umpires are supposed to do during the game. They must not, for any reason, manipulate the scores of a game. "No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, contrive the outcome, or any other aspect, of any Event," it said.