British Ex-policemen Asked to Clean Up Tennis

Tennis will announce in the next 24 hours that Ben Gunn and Jeff Rees will lead its integrity review. The sport's four governing bodies have called on Gunn, who worked for nine years as the chief constable of Cambridgeshire Police, and Rees, a former Metropolitan Police detective chief superintendent, to look at the corruption threats it faces.

Rees was the chief investigator in the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption unit, which he helped to establish, serving on it from its inception in February 2000. Gunn's experience of conducting a similar review for horse racing in 2003 and as the British Horse racing Authority's independent regulatory director marked him out for the tennis bodies as the UK's leading authority on sports integrity issues.
The tennis role is a global one, aimed at ensuring all four governing bodies for men's and women's tennis and for the grand slams have a unified approach to anti-corruption issues. Gunn had previously made a presentation to a meeting of the sport's anti-corruption steering group and he impressed enough to be called upon to conduct the full review.

Although minor contractual issues still need to be resolved, it is hoped he and Rees will be able to report back their findings to the board meetings of the four bodies in Indian Wells in March.

Triathlon tribulations

The International Triathlon Union's headline sponsor, BG Group, announced last week that it would be withdrawing from its nine-year sponsorship agreement with the ITU to refocus its "brand and sponsorship in the countries of the group's operation". The ITU attracted BG Group to the table in 2006 with a nine-year "global partnership" worth $20m (£10.1m) and the accent was on spending the cash developing the sport in minority countries. Many in the sport saw it as a means of strengthening the political position of Les McDonald, the ITU president, who drew big support in triathlon's backwaters. McDonald stands down as president this year and the organization admits the sports- development program will suffer from BG Group's withdrawal, with a bigger focus on the commercial potential of the elite World Cup series. But Loreen Barnett, the ITU's executive director, insisted McDonald's departure is unconnected. "Les thought highly of sport development but bigger on his radar is the World Cup series; that is more important to his legacy," she said.

Setanta's derby downer

Tensions in the relationship between Sky and Setanta are growing over the pick of Premier League fixtures for the two broadcasters' schedules. Setanta is finding it harder to secure matches involving the big four than it expected before the season started. The latest case came when it was forced to miss out on next Monday's big London derby between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs' draw against Reading on Saturday means they now have an FA Cup replay on Tuesday, shifting the league game back to Saturday 3pm. Setanta suspect Sky is playing with its picks to make considerations of policing, Champions League and domestic cup competitions wreak havoc with the market newcomer's own schedules. "With the experience we have since 1992 of picking matches, we know what can go wrong," said a Sky source. And perhaps happily for Sky, while insulating itself from those issues it has also made life harder for Setanta.

Agents can't be secret

The Football Association's new agents' regulations, effective from this month, have made it a requirement for foreign agents to register with it if they intend to deal with an English club or to bring their players to this country. The FA's list of registered overseas agents includes such names as Thomas Belsoeur, Fabien Piveteau, Pini Zahavi, left, and Willie McKay, all of whom were cited in the final Quest report. The perceived lack of cooperation of certain overseas agents caused frustrations for the Quest investigators who were probing all Premier League deals over a five transfer-window period. Soho Square officials expect that the new system will ensure prompter assistance from all foreign-based agents.