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(BBC)
Karim Hossam was one of the best tennis players of all time. He hoped to participate in the biggest international competitions alongside the most prominent heroes of this game, but instead participated in one of the largest networks of fraud discovered in the extreme in a sport rife with corruption from all sides. In this investigation by BBC-Arab and Radio 4, BBC correspondent Simon Cox uses recordings and secret documents to reveal the march and collapse of Karim.
The story of the collapse of the Karim sport began in a room of a simple hotel in Tunis in June 2017. The 24-year-old athlete was sitting in front of two former investigators from the British police.
The two investigators were working for the Integrity Unit of Tennis (TUI), accused of investigating corruption in the game, admitting that Karim was manipulating the match.
In a six-month series of investigations, Karim revealed that he was part of one of the largest match-fixing networks in tennis four years ago.
The future of the International Tennis Federation (IFT) in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh may not be as promising as Wimbledon or Roland Garros in terms of numbers of participants or prizes.
The Sharm el-Sheikh Championship, which takes place next to a shopping center, attracts only a small number of spectators and the prizes for the winners do not exceed $ 15,000, a quarter of what the loser gets in the first round at Wimbledon.
Karim Husam has won this tournament four times when he competed again in 2013.
Karim al-Masri was then 20 years old and hoped to be able to count on North Africa because he was one of the best tennis players in the world, ranking near the top 10 in the world. He started participating in the great professional tennis trade union courses with the best players in the world.
Karim participated in the Australian Open and Roland Garros, but the Sharm el-Sheikh tournament was one of many sessions held around the world by thousands of young players.
Karim Hossam was preparing for a match in Sharm el-Sheikh when another player said, "Do you want to lose the game for a thousand dollars?"
The same player had called him several months ago at the Qatar Open, asking him if he was ready to lose the first set of a match at which he was playing for one thousand dollars.
In this match, Karim faced one of the best players in the world, Richard Gasquet, ranked ninth in the world (about 300 places before Karim). But Karim replied, "I'm playing with Gasquet and I'm not here to sell the game."
But the situation in Sharm el-Sheikh was different. It was not important for Karim if he won or lost, but after thinking about it, he decided to proceed with the manipulation. "I wanted to try to get into the subject because I had not tried it before, I thought that person was lying to me," Karim told investigators. "I did not know that the game was already there."
But the person did not lie. "After losing the match, Karim went with the same person to the Union Union office for the money he had promised."
Players contributing to this network could have won more than $ 1,000 and played in other games.
"If you have a basic knowledge of those involved in match fixing, especially tennis, you can get a lot of money," said Fred Lord, director of the anti-corruption department of the International Center for sports safety in Qatar. Half a million euros. "
What Karim Hosam did not understand was that he sold his sporting future for $ 1,000. For the authorities responsible for tennis, a penalty for an offense of this type is tantamount to a total ban on playing tennis. life.
Karim was unable to silence the subject, informing his father, who helped him finance his quest. Karim told investigators that his father "was furious and told him that he was ruining his life with these cases".
After this first offense, Karim stated that he had tried for a while to avoid repeating it, but he was also convinced that if he had more money, he would be easier to develop your career. "I wanted to attend important and important courses, whether in the United States or elsewhere, and anything that needed money," he said.
Karim continued what he had started and continued to charge for the loss of matches. He soon became a mediator for gambling networks. This would require the loss of a match and, in other cases, the loss of a group in a match. It depended on what the player wanted.
Karim has spent the next four years helping to open matches in Egypt, Tunisia and Nigeria, and has been fined $ 200,000 to $ 200,000.
A large number of clbadified documents, which the BBC has read, show that Karim manipulated the results of the matches through messages exchanged via Facebook with dozens of North African players.
In May 2016, Karim wrote to an Algerian player: "My brother, lose the first set, then win the game and win $ 2,500".
When the other player is in agreement, Karim makes sure to understand the instructions. "So you lose the first set and then win the game." The result is not important, but I have to lose the first set? ", Replies the player.
"It's important to lose the first set and win the match," said Karim. "I hope it is easy because I need money," the player tells Karim.
The two men corresponded for several hours, but were blocked to block the implementation of the agreement.
On other occasions, things were easier. In August 2016, Karim wrote in the early hours of the morning to a Moroccan player: "A set for $ 3,000".
"What would I have if I lost?"
Karim tells him, "I miss a meeting of $ 3,000, my friend."
The player has already lost the game.
The documents obtained by the BBC involved more than 20 North African players, either directly in match-fixing, or indirectly by not warning the authorities when brokers asked them to do so. Any player who is asked to manipulate the result of a match must inform the tennis authorities or face a long-term ban.
In June 2017, the anti-corruption authorities of tennis finally managed to catch Karim.
During his first interrogation with the interrogators, he explained to them how they had been trained in the field of match manipulation. "My father took care of my money and my brother's expenses, and I did not earn any income," he told investigators.
After this investigation, Karim sent a letter to his younger brother, Yusuf, also a professional tennis player. "They stopped me in my room and I was stupid because I did not delete some things," he said in the letter.
Karim told his brother that there was a hope to avoid heavy penalties in exchange for cooperation with the authorities. "I told them that I wanted to work with them, it would be great if they accepted, I would travel and receive money to access the gambling intermediaries," he said.
But it was not so simple: Karim was temporarily banned from playing after several days of questions from the Tennis Integrity Unit. He sent a letter to another player on the day of the ban, stating that he "would increase his gambling activity from now on".
After another interrogation with the integrity unit of tennis, in January 2018, Karim Hussam announced that he had been referred to the training of children. The investigators asked him to provide evidence against the player who had recruited him, as they had no other evidence.
I think you share the view that this is a danger to the game and to young players, and we have to get rid of it. Otherwise, you would not be facing this position now, "said one of the investigators.
Karim hopes that the cooperation will bring him certain advantages and he seems frustrated at not having benefited from it. "I gave them a lot of information, I did not lie about anything, I was honest, but I was refused to play forever, I've been playing for 17 years and I did that I did under certain circumstances, I have no other evidence or any other interview. "
In July 2018, Karim Hossam was banned from playing for life, but documents seen by the BBC indicate that he continued to spoil the match.
In August 2018, one of the conversations indicated that he had contacted a player and offered him $ 3,500 for a loss of installation. It was then announced that the result of the match had been arranged in advance. The player has therefore withdrawn. "We want to deal with men, not with children," Hossam suspected.
We tried to contact Karim Hossam to ask him about these discussions and his contact with other players, but he did not respond to our contacts.
The documents reveal one of the largest brokers and sellers of tennis matches of all time, bringing together more than 20 players in North Africa. Spanish police arrested 15 people last month during a match sale. It is said that 28 Spanish players are involved in this affair with an Armenian mediation network.
According to one of the documents seen by the BBC, Karim reportedly had contact with an Armenian mediator.
Most of the players involved in the mediation and sale of matches have not seen the penalties. Even the player who recruited Karim Hossam, against whom the investigators wanted to testify, still plays professionally.
A copy of the BBC documents was sent to the Integrity Unit of Tennis. But the person who leaked the documents doubted their reaction. "The integrity of tennis is inefficient because the process is slow and unfinished," he said.
One of the players told me that he would often be punished for life and that he would make the most of the next two championships. Opportunity? "
The integrity of the game revealed that he could not comment on the current problems, adding that "the confidentiality of ongoing investigations is a key factor because of the nature of the charges and the difficulty of gathering solid evidence of corruption, but the public disclosure will alert the defendants and allow them to conceal or corrupt evidence. "
An independent body had examined the fairness of tennis in 2018 as a result of a survey released by the BBC on suspicions of illegal gambling. The report says that the integrity of the game poses many problems and that there is a "tsunami" of corruption in the sport.
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