The Tennis Integrity Supervisory Board has given the green light for the organisation’s anti-corruption and anti-doping divisions to be merged to form a ‘single, combined and expanded integrity organisation for professional tennis.’
The Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TCAP) currently oversees all issues pertaining to betting-related corruption, while the International Tennis Federation (ITF) manages the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (TADP).
“We are confident there will be significant benefits from integrating these two strong programmes into a single organisation. They include enhanced information sharing between the anti-doping and anti-corruption teams and the opportunity to join up education and support for players,” explained Board Chair, Jennie Price.
The merger of the two divisions will integrate both the anti-corruption and anti-doping divisions in a single location with shared services, including player education, with the new organisation due to take on full responsibility for tennis anti-doping matters on 1 January 2021.
The new organisation, which is yet to be named, is due to be operationally independent of the sport. It is hoped that TADP cases will benefit from the investigative experience available through the Tennis Integrity Unit.
Work is already underway to implement the detailed measures required to deliver the expanded integrity body. Central to managing that process will be the recruitment of a new chief executive officer to establish and lead the restructured organisation.
source:SBCnews.com