BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION RADIO 4 TRANSCRIPT OF “FILE ON 4” – “TENNIS: THE ITALIAN FILES” CURRENT AFFAIRS GROUP TRANSMISSION: Tuesday 15th March 2016 2000 – 2040 REPEAT: Sunday 20th March 2016 1700 - 1740 REPORTER: Simon Cox PRODUCER: Paul Grant EDITOR: David Ross PROGRAMME NUMBER: PMR611/16VQ5747 - 1 - THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. “FILE ON 4” Transmission: Tuesday 15th March 2016 Repeat: Sunday 20th March 2016 Producer: Paul Grant Reporter: Simon Cox Editor: David Ross ACTUALITY OF BELLS COX: Tonight we are in Italy in the ancient town of Cremona, with new revelations about top tennis players named in a match fixing investigation. DI MARTINO[VIA INTERPRETER]: I think with international collaboration it would be possible to identify, possibly involve, many foreign players who are definitely part of this system. It is a problem that affects the whole world. COX: We reveal startling new evidence about another betting scandal that the tennis authorities thought had gone away. And if you think it’s only men’s tennis that has an issue, think again. Tonight we hear from insiders in the sport who say it’s a problem that’s too big to fix. MOORE: The nature of their sport and their business is just too big and too colossal to effectively make any changes. It’s impossible to police, it cannot be done. - 2 - SIGNATURE TUNE NEWSREADER: The world of professional tennis has been rocked by allegations of widespread match fixing. NEWSREADER 2: New allegations rocking the world of professional tennis, with the Australian Open getting …. COX: Our revelations in January that Tennis’ anticorruption body ignored repeated warnings that top players were taking part in suspicious matches created headlines around the world. NEWSREADER 3: Now that scandal in pro tennis is overshadowing the Australian Open, tennis fixers are denying the allegations …. NEWSREADER 4: BuzzFeed and the BBC reporting today tennis officials have failed to deal with widespread corruption … COX: Tennis tried to downplay the findings of our joint investigation, but in the end it couldn’t ignore them. BERLINCIONI: All the players, all the people that play tennis at professional level every day knows that match fixing was a real problem. COX: Stefano Berlincioni - an expert on tennis gambling - says most of the players he regularly talks to were pleased that the problem was finally out in the open. BERLINCIONI: I don’t think anyone inside the tennis world was very surprised, but maybe the public that doesn’t follow anything related to betting, for them it was really a surprise because the general opinion is that this sport was clean. The majority of the players is clean so they were happy about your programme and all the media involved in this match fixing issue. Of course, the not clean players were not happy about it because this increases the probability for them to get caught. - 3 - COX: Since our programme was broadcast, there have been repeated questions asked about the failure by Tennis’ Integrity Unit to act on the alerts they received. Last month the head of the unit, Nigel Willerton, had a bruising few hours in front of the Commons Culture Committee. Its chairman, Jesse Norman, pressed him on claims that sixteen top level players were involved. ACTUALITY AT COMMITTEE MEETING NORMAN: Is it really true that half of the sixteen players that were warned about then took part in the Australian Open only a few weeks ago? WILLERTON: Well, I do not know the sixteen names that were handed over in those original documents. I was not in place at that time. NORMAN: But you can just look into the files though? The files have got the documents in there. You had a team, they did a report. The head of the team, or one of the heads of the team then became the head of the TIU. WILLERTON: The files that I looked at, I did not see sixteen names listed and those files have been handed to the independent review panel to look into. COX: Having heard from tennis’ anticorruption body, Jesse Norman says the sport needs to pay more attention to evidence pointing towards potential match fixers. NORMAN: I was certainly struck, when they came in front of the committee, that although the TIU itself had been set up in reaction to some pretty clear cases of match fixing, the people in charge of it now didn’t seem to have carried forward an understanding of, you know, who the most likely suspects were. And there have been widespread public concerns that the unit itself is not as transparent as it might be in its own deliberations and therefore you can have a proper public concern about whether or not it should be justifying these kinds of decisions internally and, even conceivably, externally. - 4 - COX: Tennis’ governing bodies have launched a review into match fixing, which is expected to take at least a year to complete. Meanwhile new evidence is still emerging about possible corruption within the sport. MUSIC ACTUALITY IN ITALY, ACCORDION PLAYING COX: To get to the bottom of match fixing, you really need to come to Italy, because we know that several of the gambling syndicates were based in the country and there’s actually an ongoing investigation happening now based here in Cremona, which is where I am, in the town’s medieval square. You can probably hear in the background, they’re just packing up from the weekly market. I’m overshadowed by a beautiful red stone tower of the cathedral which dominates this square. I’m just heading round the corner to Via Tribulani, to the offices of the prosecutor Roberto di Martino, who is running the investigation. DI MARTINO [VIA INTERPRETER]: The evidence consists of chats taken from computers seized from some of the suspects. Regarding these chats, we questioned the people involved, and some of them have spoken to us and provided explanations as to what happened in the tennis world and what measures were taken. COX: During his two year inquiry, Roberto Di Martino has amassed thousands of documents - including internet chat logs and phone conversations where gamblers apparently discuss trying to fix matches. DI MARTINO [VIA INTERPRETER]: All the matches were played abroad in various tournaments - the most well-known ones, including Wimbledon, Roland-Garros, etc. The players involved are Italian players. They are accused of agreeing to manipulate a set of matches or to enlist other players who would also manipulate matches. COX: The Italians are the former top 50 players Potito Starace and Daniele Bracciali. According to the prosecutor, between 2007 and 2011, Bracciali would arrange the fix with gamblers and Starace would carry it out on court. He - 5 - COX cont: was promised between 30,000 and 50,000 euros - around £40,000 for each match. Both players deny the charges. Together with BuzzFeed News and the Italian newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, we have obtained hundreds of confidential documents from the Cremona investigation files. A key figure in them is Manlio Bruni, a gambler and accountant for several Italian footballers. Through his footballer friends, Bruni was introduced to Daniele Bracciali. In July 2007, he starts chatting on Skype to the player about trying to fix a match. SKYPE NOISES BRUNI [READ]: For me it depends on how it develops. It is extremely important to win the first set, and if possible, to go a break ahead in the second. Would that be possible? In this case I can give you much more. COX: Bracciali responds that ideally he would need to know the other player in order to arrange winning the first set, but then losing the match. Bruni tries to tempt him with an offer of 50,000 euros. BRUNI [READ]: Ok, I could do 50 to begin with for tomorrow, but it is absolutely necessary that you win the first set, otherwise we could do it another time. If I have enough time, we could get you even more. BRACCIALI [READ]: It is very important for me to know who I am playing, so I can talk with him beforehand, because I can’t tell you I will win the first. It’s not easy. COX: They carry on discussing options, but finally Bracciali says: BRACCIALI [READ]: 90% of me says no, but if I change my mind I will let you know. BRUNI [READ]: Ok, no problem, but if you change your mind I would need to know as soon as possible so that I can arrange things. The ideal would be to forfeit at the beginning of the third and I give you 60. - 6 - BRACCIALI [READ]: I know. F**k, if I knew him it would be easier. COX: The two men were in contact for the next four years until Bruni was arrested in 2011. Bracciali denies taking part in match fixing. In the files we have seen, he told investigators he was playing along and pretending to be interested. The prosecutor, Roberto Di Martino, claims that although he only has firm evidence about two matches, there are many more that cropped up in his inquiry - including at Wimbledon. DI MARTINO [VIA INTERPRETER]: There are at least thirty suspicious matches or matches of this kind where there is a suspicion there has been some intervention by the organisation. We can say there are only two matches for which we have very concrete evidence they have been manipulated.