Tennis is one of the sports most marked by cheating and fixing. The relative ease of doing so, where it is difficult to demonstrate that the players let themselves lose, favors that there are many athletes in the spotlight. Especially, in all those tournaments that hardly have an impact worldwide.
Thanks to that, Younes Rachidi profited according to International Integrity Agency del Tenis (ITIA). The Moroccan has been banned for life after finding a series of irregularities in his record that have made him one of the great swindlers in the racket world.
A total of 135 times, Rachidi violated the rules of fair play and intentionally decided to lose games or sets to get extra financial benefit from what was his main profession. Figures never before seen in the ATP or the ITF throughout their history and that has surprised everyone, triggering one of the toughest sanctions there can be.
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At 37 Rachidi has been banned for life. That is, he has been prohibited from “playing, training or attending any tennis event authorized or sanctioned by the governing bodies of tennis” as punishment for his repeated cheating in the tournaments he played throughout his sports career.
A new stain on the world of sport, which has revealed in recent months the deceptions on the order of the day. It is not only tennis, since other modalities such as soccer, athletics or cycling have been stained by various techniques or irregular performances.
Rachidi hits a ball with his racket.
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“Heinous” violations
The body that confirmed that Younes Rachidi’s infringements was the Independent Anti-Corruption Hearing Office. After proving all of the Moroccan’s charges throughout his tenure, which he considered “egregious,” he also imposed a financial penalty of $34,000.
“Rachidi was involved in match-fixing with two Algerian players recently banned by ITIA and the cases were discovered following police investigations in conjunction with ITIA in Belgium“, explains part of the statement about what happened to him.
Rachidi, who dedicated a large part of his career to tournament play ITF, reached his best ranking in 2013, both in singles and doubles, where he reached positions 473 and 753 as the best position in his career. In addition, she despite not playing any game of Grand Slam yes he was part of the Davis cup with your country, Morocco.
Even so, Rachidi had not played a match since 2017, when he played the ITF tournament in Casablanca in doubles with his compatriot Anas Chakrouni. There he fell defeated against the Italian couple formed by Philip Borella y Luca Giacomini.
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However, it is also pointed out that Rachidi was not the only one to commit the misdeeds alone, but that two Algerian players are involved. Mohamed Hassan y Houria Boukolda they were affected by the investigations and their participation in other rigging was uncovered.
Hassan, 27, whose highest ATP ranking was 1476 on the lists, was found guilty of 29 offenses in seven matches dating back between the years 2016 and 2018. On the other hand, Boukholda, 20, has been found guilty. of 15 fixes in five games in 2017 and 2018.
The first of them was also suspended for life for committing his acts for a longer time and repeatedly. Boukholda received a minor ban of two years because he was influenced by his compatriot, several years older than him.
Other sports cases
It was also the case in tennis Barbara Gatica Aviles. The Chilean player was sanctioned with three years of punishment after learning that she had received betting money for losing a match in 2016. For this reason, she was prohibited from returning to the courts until December 2025.
Gatica, which reached number 156 in the ranking, was not the first time it had been related to illegal practices. Last June she received another sanction for failing a doping control.
In recent months there has also been a notorious case in the world of sports. In England the case of the footballer was uncovered Ivan Toney. The current attacker Brentford came to fail up to 232 times the rules of the english federation and made numerous illegal bets.
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“The Brentford striker is accused of having breached FA rule E8 some 232 times between February 25, 2017 and January 23, 2021,” the agency’s statement stated, hinting at a case like Rachimi.
A common practice in England, where there have been several cases of footballers who have profited from sports betting. Daniel Sturridge, Joey Barton, Martin Demichelis and Andrew Towsend They have been some of the hunted players who have benefited from it despite being completely prohibited.
Snooker was also not spared at the beginning of the year with up to ten players removed from the circuit. Zhao Xintong y Zhang Jiankang, among others, were some of those suspended by the World Professional Billiards Association. However, the two Asian athletes are not the first from their country to be related to these malpractices, since eight others had been accused of fixing just a few months before.
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Source: www.elespanol.com
