The Egyptian Tennis Federation announced on Tuesday that it will immediately implement the sanctions imposed by the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) banning Egyptian player Youssef Hossam for life for fixing matches.

The Egyptian federation assured in its statement that the player can appeal the ban before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

“We can’t do anything for Youssef at this time because these charges happened in tournaments which are not under our supervision, but he can appeal himself before the CAS to reduce the sentence,” Egyptian Tennis Federation vice president Walid Sami told Ahram Online.

Youssef’s elder brother, Karim Hossam, was also banned from tennis for life for multiple match-fixing offences in 2018.

“The investigators caught Youssef while investigating his brother Karim to find out that Youssef was also involved in match-fixing,” Sami added.

“We hope that he gets a softer sanction than this, he’s still young and he’s very talented. But unfortunately, the number of charges is large,” the vice president said.

The TIU issued a media release on Monday revealing its decisions against the 21-year-old tennis player.

“Youssef Hossam has been banned from professional tennis for life following his conviction on multiple match-fixing and associated corruption charges,” the statement said.

“A TIU investigation established that over a four-year period between 2015 and 2019, Mr Hossam conspired with other parties to carry out an extensive campaign of betting-related corruption at the lower levels of professional tennis. This involved 21 breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program,” TIU’s statement added.

The TIU is the anti-corruption body covering all professional tennis around the world.

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