The Italian Tennis Federation announced that Italian tennis player Marco Cecchinato has been banned for 18 months and fined €40,000 ($44,060) for match-fixing. The 23-year-old, currently ranked No. 143 in the world, "is one of three Italians to be banned," along with Riccardo Accardi and Antonio Campo. Cecchinato was found guilty of "altering the outcome of his match against Poland's Kamil Majchrzak at the ATP Challenger event in Morocco." Accardi was suspended for 12 months and fined €20,000 ($22,030), while Campo has been banned for four months and given a €10,000 ($11,015) fine for their roles in attempts to fix matches (REUTERS, 7/20).
The Int'l Gymnastics Federation (FIG) announced "three gymnastics judges have been banned and five more given warnings for biased or unsatisfactory scoring at recent events." FIG said that "none of the eight will participate at the Rio Olympics" emphasizing that the "vast majority" of judges had produced "excellent work." The sanctioned judges "were not named" (REUTERS, 7/20).
Mexico's National Authority of Physical Education & Sport (CONADE) announced a partnership with the country's Professional American Football League (LFA). The principal objective of the LFA "will be to drive and generate talent that could join Mexico's national team" (LA AFICIÓN, 7/19).
