Key Points
- The main charge against Stefan Milićevic was that he fixed no less than 6 matches, attempted another 6 and even recruited other players to do the same.
- The fact is he simply never replied to a 7th separate ITIA approach, and now no one has ever examined the evidence. Yes you read that right no hearing officer ever got to see what actually happened.
- The ITIA is claiming that even though he chose to remain silent, they still wouldn’t have added any more years to the ban, but it looks like silence was a bad idea for him.
Stefan Milićevic didn’t even bother answering any of the 7 times that tennis investigators tried to get in touch with him this year. And as a result he’s been banned from the sport until 2050 and it’s fair to say he’ll be losing out on a lot of fun in between. Now, you might wonder how this is even possible. After all, shouldn’t there be an independent hearing to just make sure that the punishment fits the crime?
The truth is that this is where the real story begins. With no one getting to examine the evidence at all the International Tennis Integrity Agency announced the 24-year suspension and a $70,000 fine on Thursday 15 October 2026. Milićevic spent most of his career stuck on the lower rungs of the professional tennis ladder he actually managed to break through and reach a career high of 1,338 in singles in August 2014.
What the ITIA Charged Him With and How Serious It Really Was?
According to the agency, the reason for his ban was that he’d fixed 6 matches between 2022 and 2024, 5 of which he even went on to play. But that wasn’t all he was also accused of trying to fix another 6 matches in the same time period. And it looks like his attempts went beyond just his own matches the ITIA say that he even recruited other players to get in on the corrupt action.
The ITIA are claiming that his little game may have even drawn in other professionals, saying “a number of other players fixed matches.” but they’re not giving out any more details. The thing is those players and the fixed matches themselves are still unnamed, and no figure has been given for any money that might have changed hands.
How Not Answering Brought About the Punishment?
The investigation went on for a couple of years but Milićevic didn’t bother engaging at all, despite those 7 ITIA attempts. He didn’t even bother to respond to a letter sent on September 24. That’s pretty typical for the investigation process, but the outcome isn’t. Under the ITIA’s rules when a player is given a notice like this, they can either accept the charge, contest it or just stay silent. In this case, staying silent was a pretty bad idea it meant that the punishment simply came into force.
The ITIA has said that this is a way to wrap up cases quickly when players are just not going to co-operate.
Silence Did Not Add Years, Says the ITIA
Milićević’s lack of co-operation with investigators must have played a part in the decision to impose the ban, many readers will assume. And some of the coverage has actually indicated that. According to a spokesperson cited in the EssentiallySports report, the length of the sanction was decided by the nature of the offences and the recruitment, not the non-cooperation. The same report states that according to the BBC, part of the severity was due to his non-cooperation.
How ITIA’s guidelines came up with exactly 24 years is not stated in the ITIA’s statement. Clearly, silence cost him the 25% early admission discount and the right to challenge the evidence against him.
The Door That Might Remain Open
A deemed sanction is not necessarily the last word in ITIA’s proceedings. The ITIA process page states that an appeal can be made to the hearing officer within ten business days of the implementation of the sanction. As of 20 October 2026, counting from 9 October 2026, this window has not yet expired. No publicly available report has mentioned any appeal. Until the window has closed, the 24 years remains a sanction for charges yet to be heard by a hearing officer.
If the sanction stands, the banned player cannot play, coach and attend events organised by the ATP, WTA, Grand Slams and national associations. Among these organisers is World Tennis, the new name of the International Tennis Federation following its rebrand in 2026, and thus the exclusion applies to all levels. The ban ends when he turns 53 on 8 October 2050.
The Folliot Comparison
In December of last year, Frenchman Quentin Folliot received a 20-year ban in what appears to be very similar circumstances. Like in Milićević’s case, his matches occurred between 2022 and 2024 and were fined $70,000. Folliot admitted to only six out of 30 charges, and hearing officer Amani Khalifa found 27 of them true after a two-day remote hearing in October 2025.
In his written decision, Khalifa called Folliot “a vector for a wider criminal syndicate”. Intentional obstruction of the investigation was one of the aggravating circumstances. The cases cannot be compared year by year, as one has been heard and the other – has not.
Why The Low Tier Match Fixing Stories Keep Hitting the Headlines?
Back in April 2018, an independent review panel had one investigator describing the scene as “a tsunami” of breaches in lower divisions. They recommended that the sale of official live scoring data, which lets people bet on low-profile matches, should be restricted.
8 years later, the ITIA’s annual review showed 68 match alerts in 2025, down from 95 the year before. Of those, 16 came from men’s M15 events and 12 from M25 events on the World Tennis Tour. But the agency warns that a single alert doesn’t amount to proof of fixing and that there are loads of matches played down at lower levels. The raw number of alerts just isn’t enough to figure out which tier is the most corrupt.
The Slogging Match Amid Tennis Governance
In March 2025, the PTPA, co-founded by Novak Djokovic, filed a lawsuit naming the ITIA as one of the defendants. Their list of complaints included claims of investigative abuse and betting on match-fixing, plus some squabbles around scheduling and prize money. Then, on 1 October 2026, the PTPA announced that a US federal court had rejected all six attempts to have the case dismissed.
The statement named the ATP, WTA and three Grand Slam organisers as trying to get it thrown out, but didn’t say a word about the ITIA. That leaves it wide open to question what role the ITIA has got going on in all this. None of this is connected to Milićevićs case, although the PTPA’s complaints about investigations mean his file is a sensitive one.
What’s Coming Up?
Everyone’s eyes are now on the appeal window and the players Milićević allegedly brought into his cheating ring. None of them has been named in public, and the ITIA still hasn’t said whether their cases are still open. If the agency does slap them with some sanctions, it’ll be interesting to see whether they’re really tackling the whole operation or just getting rid of the person who brought in new recruits.
Expert Thoughts: The Problem Isn’t How Long the Ban Is It’s The Lack of Clarity
We’ve got no beef with a long ban for somebody who’s proven to have brought others into match fixing. What we are concerned about is that all this “proof” has yet to be put to the test. Folliot fought his charges, lost most of them, and left behind a written decision that anyone can read. Milićevićs file, on the other hand, just offers a press release and a number with no explanation about how that number was worked out.
You can already see the confusion starting to build, the BBC and ITIA spokespersons are giving different accounts of just how much of a role silence played. In our view, any major sanction of this kind should be accompanied by a clear, written explanation of what’s going on. If you’re offering a discount for admitting guilt you’ve got to explain yourself when nobody admits anything.
We also think tennis should stop publishing the number of alerts without any context, how many matches were there in the first place? Readers deserve to know if 16 M15 alerts are a cause for concern or just a tiny blip. Until the records are more complete, a 24-year ban will just close one file while leaving all the big questions hanging.
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