Filed under: ATP, Sports Business and Media
Ninety minutes. That's all it took for IMG's damage control/smear campaign to get fully up and running.It's how long it was from the time my column on the Roger Federer/IMG gambling lawsuit reached the web Friday until I heard from an IMG vice president defending his CEO, Theodore Forstmann, and referring to the man suing him, Jim Agate, as a "whackjob.''
"And you wrote that (Forstmann) bet against Roger Federer,'' the VP said. "That isn't true. He bet on Federer to beat Rafael Nadal (in the 2007 French Open final). He lost $40,000 on that match.''
I heard a similar thing from someone else representing IMG, which serves as Federer's agent. That's fine, but just one point, one serious, serious point:
It is a major breach of tennis rules, not to mention ethics, for Forstmann, who runs a company that owns several pro tournaments, to be betting on tennis at all.
This is about to become a major scandal for tennis. It extends beyond tennis, too, into the sports world in general.
Agate contends that Federer was providing inside information on tennis to Forstmann, who was then betting. Imagine Roy Halladay tipping off Bud Selig, and Selig betting on it.
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