ITIA provisionally suspends Bosnian tennis official over corruption

Dejanovic, the ITIA says, is facing charges for breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Programme (TACP). 

The national-level official has been suspended since 8 January, meaning he cannot officiate at or attend professional tennis events. These include contests authorised or sanctioned by ITIA members or any national association.

The ITIA did not disclose the full details of these charges but did reference Section F.3.b.i.4 of the TACP. This states the individual is likely to have committed a “major offence” that would undermine the integrity of tennis.

Dejanovic did not appeal the ruling and is now serving the provisional suspension while the ITIA completes its investigation. 

Another week, another suspension from the ITIA

Dejanovic is the latest individual to have been suspended by the ITIA, albeit provisionally for the time being.

Earlier this month, the ITIA banned Bulgarian official Stefan Milanov for 16 years. This was after he was found guilty of a series of corruption offences for five matches he umpired in 2021.

Specific activities included manipulating scoring data facilitating any other person to wager on an event.

Meanwhile, the ITIA has handed out a series of bans and suspensions to players in recent weeks over links to a criminal case over a wider match-fixing case in Belgium.

Collaboration between the ITIA and Belgian authorities led to a five-year custodial sentence for syndicate leader Grigor Sargsyan. This led to an initial 16 players being banned during Sargsyan’s conviction in November.

Other recent charges include those filed against French tennis player Leny Mitjana. He was banned for 10 years after being found guilty of corruption and match-fixing offences. 

In addition, Tunisian player Anis Ghorbel was banned for three years over his role in fixing matches in 2016 and 2017. Ghorbel, who has a career-high world singles ranking of 479 in 2016, denies all charges.

The ITIA did not state whether Dejanovic’s suspension was related to the same case.