HBO's "Real Sports" examined the tax evasion case
against PETER GRAF, father of STEFFI GRAF, as his trial in
Germany winds down. HBO's Jim Lampley noted that during its
investigation of Grafs' finances in '94, German tax
prosecutors compiled a list of Steffi's income from
tournaments over the years, which included appearance fees
of more than $1M. Lampley added that "several" of these
tournaments were officially sanctioned by the WTA Tour.
BOOK OF RULES: WTA Tour regulations "specifically
forbid such guaranteed payments." According to those rules,
a player receiving an appearance fee could be subjected to
"hefty fines" and a suspension of up to three months. Corel
WTA Tour CEO ANNE PERSON WORCESTER sent HBO a letter reading
in part: "The Corel WTA Tour continues to utilize both its
internal and external resources to monitor the Peter Graf
tax evasion trial ... and determine the validity of the
allegations regarding appearance fees allegedly paid to
players. To date, the tour has still not been able to
obtain, or has [not] been presented with any substantiated
evidence, of appearance money being paid to any tour
player." Chief trial prosecutor HUBERT JOBSKI said during
the investigation of Graf's finances, it "surfaced ... that
certain organizations have paid appearance fees. They were
officially declared as appearance fees." But, according to
Lampley, no one from the WTA has contacted Jobski regarding
that information. Tennis Week Publisher GENE SCOTT: "It is
absolute nonsense to think that [Graf] would have been paid
those amounts of money were it not as an incentive to show
up in the tournament. ... Without admitting that there is a
problem, how can they [WTA Tour] come up with a solution?"
PLENTY MORE READING: KLAUS BRINKBAUMER, a writer for
the German magazine Der Spiegel, co-wrote a book outlining
"how the Grafs' allegedly bilked the German Government out
of millions." Brinkbaumer, on the WTA's reluctancy to
investigate: "Everybody in women's tennis wants to keep
Steffi Graf on the tour. So there is nobody in the world of
women's tennis who wants to go after this, or who wants to
find out what's going on." After the segment, Lampley told
Bryant Gumbel that if the WTA Tour knew about the fee, "they
probably preferred to believe that the money was being paid
to Steffi as promotional money for services related to the
tournaments, and if they knew more than that then it was
probably in their best interest to look the other way."
Lampley added, "This is a very difficult time for the WTA
Tour. They are just finishing their first year of their new
sponsorship deal with Corel. In that first year, it is
known that Corel is not happy that Graf played [Monica]
Seles one time, and ...it never happened in a WTA Tour
event. [GABRIELA] SABATINI and [KIMIKO] DATE, two top-ten
players, have just retired. Seles is heading for probable
shoulder surgery. So to lose Steffi Graf for a long period
of time to suspension would be a critically damaging blow to
the WTA Tour" ("Real Sports," HBO, 1/13).
WTA: PERSON WORCESTER, in response to the report: "We
are actively monitoring the Peter Graf tax evasion trial and
have attempted to obtain documents. But the German system
doesn't allow disclosure of documents. Our course of action
will be decided after the trial" (USA TODAY, 1/13).
