British culture secretary, John Whittingdale, released a comment about the betting controversy going on in the tennis industry, especially that several umpires are facing life-long bans on being involved in the sport.
"Extreme concern" is what minister John Whittingdale feels over the international tennis umpires that face life bans due to participating in betting scams. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced the ban over the gambling-related scenarios, with four more umpires facing life bans.
The controversy was first exposed in a report by The Guardian.
"It is extremely concerning to hear that umpires - people who are in charge of ensuring fair play on the court - mat have been involved in corrupt practices," said Whittingdale, as reported separately by The Guardian.
"The lack of transparency around these cases is deeply worrying and once again it has been the British media that has uncovered what has happened," added Whittingdale. In relation, Whittingdale mentioned that the minister is working on an anti-corruption summit, which is why he is working hard against the tennis-related gambling controversy.
The minister added that he has spoken to tennis authorities in the past recent weeks and reiterated the importance of "good governance and transparency." Whittingdale mentioned how committed the government is on eradicating corruption in sports.
Eric Pickles, who is known to fight corruption said that planning to smash international sports corruption, including issues at FIFA and the IAAF, said that the tennis gambling controversy will be a key issue in the minister's summit.
Tennis authorities will be sought by a parliamentary committee as to why they kept the sanctions against the umpires under wraps. It has been discovered that there have been orders from the MPs for a sport-crime unit in order to aid the concerning issue. The Tory MP, Damian Collins, is a campaigner on sports authority issues, mentioned that the exposed controversy acts as a "wake-up call" for the sport that seem to have a hard time fighting insider corruption.
"The Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) is only really accountable to other people in tennis. There's no outside scrutiny. It needs more resource and proper independent scrutiny," said Collins in the same report.
