As the International Tennis Integrity Agency officially announced, Bulgarian chair umpire, Stefan Milanov, has been suspended for six months. He was also fined $10,000, $5,000 of which was suspended. This is the consequence of severe accusations regarding this officiate.
Placing bets on forbidden matches:
The ban took its place upon the recent accusations that he placed multiple bets on a range of different tennis matches, even on the one that he was officiating. By the rules of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program, it is strictly forbidden.
Milanov’s suspension started last month, on November 15th, and it will last until May 14th next year. The chair umpire won’t be able to officiate or attend any of the main tennis events that will be authorized or sanctioned by the tennis authorities.
Milanov himself admitted that he broke two different laws that are regulated by Section D.1.a of the 2022 Tennis Anti-Corruption Program: “No Covered Person shall directly or indirectly, Wager on the outcome or any other aspect of any Event or any other tennis competition.”
Other law violations by players in the last few years:
This is not the first Bulgarian in the tennis world who committed some kind of breach. A similar thing happened in 2020 when the Tennis Integrity Unit fined and suspended two brothers, both tennis players, Karen and Yuri Khachatryan. They have broken the law by fixing multiple matches in order to get the money prize. Precisely, in the period from 2017 to 2019, five matches were fixed by this Bulgarian duo.
Karen Khachatryan was permanently banned from the tennis world and was fined $250.000 for his crime.
His brother Yuri Khatchatryan was fined $50.000 and banned from playing for ten years since he was accused of making “corrupt approaches to a fellow professional player” and lodging different sports wagers.
This kind of breach isn’t specific only to the tennis world. Last month, a famous English football player Ivan Toney was accused of improper behavior when it comes to betting rules in the sports world. Football players aren’t allowed to place any bets on football matches or to make someone do that on their behalf – and Toney did just that, violating the law 232 times between February 2012 and January 2021.
The International Governing Bodies of Tennis established the International Tennis Integrity Agency in order to protect professional tennis’s safety and integrity on a global level. Its mission is to promote, encourage, and enhance all aspects of professional tennis ethics and integrity.
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