Six Spanish tennis players get long bans

PARIS: Six Spanish tennis players have been banned for a total of more than 80 years after being convicted of match fixing, the International Tennis Integrity Agency said Friday.

The six players, including Marc Fornell Mestres, who has a highest ATP ranking of 236, and Jorge Marse Vidri, who has been ranked 562nd, all pleaded guilty to corruption charges in Spain.

All six were given two-year suspended prison sentences, and fined as part of a wider ongoing case involving organised crime.

Fornell was banned for 22 years and six months and fined $250,000, with $200,000 suspended. Marse received a 15-year suspension and was fined $15,000, of which $5,000 was suspended.

The four other players, who were all unranked, were given bans of between seven years and six months and 15 years. ITIA Chair Jennie Price said the sentences and bans showed that "match fixing can lead to a jail sentence and can end your career in tennis". "It also serves as a warning that organised crime is targeting sport, and governments and law enforcement agencies, as well as anti-corruption bodies in sport, need to take that threat seriously," she said in a statement.