Austrian player Daniel Koellerer, nicknamed Crazy Dani, received a life long ban from professional tennis and in addition must pay 100.000 Euro penalty as a result of an anti-match fixing investigation of Tennis Integrity Unit. This information became known thanks to
www.sport10.at .
Investigation lasted for a year and a half. Koellerer was due to fix three tennis matches. He denied the accussations and reportedly the judges didn't have a certain proof for the actions, but they used the paragraph giving them a possibility of claiming a sentence basing on very strong assumptions. The Austrian has twenty labour days to sign an appeal but he claims he cannot afford it.
"Why Koellerer and not other players?" is the first question that comes to mind of everyone who follows a bit of tennis - not only on TV, but also beyond. Reporters of Tennis Alternative, just like several other sport betting followers, could give several examples and provide screencaps of weird odds movements and amounts of money traded. Match fixing is a cancer on every sport, but let's not deny this, you must be pretty insignificant to receive any punishment for it, as several other guys just walk freely in joy. When it's possible to hand Koellerer a lifetime suspension basing on a "strong assumption" it smells of impossibly large hypocrisy to not investigate all the other nasty cases that stink and look obvious. Not to mention IMG's CEO, Mr. Ted Forstmann didn't really face repercussions for the betting scandal at his position. Yes, IMG and ATP need each other. No one has an interest of digging it, except of the journalists who had a topic to write about for a few days.
The ones to get punished will be Giorgio Galimberti, Alessio di Mauro etc. (match betting). Koellerer didn't have many friends on tour. Players tried to ban him in several ways. He already received suspensions for unsportsmanslike behaviour and also was punished for keeping betting companies advertisments on his website. Looking at the significance of names facing investigation and consequences and following match patterns for a while, we may only hope there will be someone like Agassi to write a book one day, that will reveal all the under the rug sweeping activities of the responsible organs. The organs that us, tennis fans, want to trust.
Koellerer's manager has stated Koellerer was accused to fix one match himself, and in the other two he was meant to "influence other players".
Some players did testify against him in the court, and especially his Austrian fellows are glad he is gone from the tour. He had many enemies and this is why finding witnesses was not a problem. Surprise, surprise, the one to testify was... Wayne Odesnik! He received his own HGH trafficking ban shortened for his words during this investigation. Martin Fischer said to the organs, "I have heard rumours." So rumours were enough to ban someone from tennis for life.
Wow.
And what do you think about it?
Nathii
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