Suljovic Referred to DRA Over Ross Smith Incident in Basel

What happened in the Suljovic–Ross Smith match?

The tie was the last 16 of the Swiss Darts Trophy at the St. Jakobshalle on Sunday afternoon, best of 11 legs, and Smith led it 5-3. Suljovic dragged it back to a decider. At 5-5 Smith stepped up with two darts at double 18 to win, and after the first one missed, Suljovic raised his arms behind him to lift the noise coming off the floor. Smith missed the second as well. Suljovic took the leg out on his next visit and won 6-5.

The scoring tells its own story about how close the thing was. Smith out-averaged Suljovic 95.08 to 93.87 and lost; a last-16 defeat in Basel paid £5,000, while the semi-final Suljovic went on to reach paid £10,000. He had already knocked out Michael van Gerwen 6-4 on the Saturday, having entered the 48-player field through the first round rather than as a seed, and he followed Smith by taking Dirk van Duijvenbode apart 6-1 with a 102.03. Sky Sports noted it was his first European Tour semi-final since 2021. Luke Humphries ended the run 7-4 before Jonny Clayton won the title 8-4.

Why has Suljovic been referred to the DRA?

Two things, not one. The first is the on-stage conduct during that deciding leg. The second is a stage interview later in the day, after the van Duijvenbode win, in which Suljovic was asked about the criticism Smith had already made public. He defended himself first — “what is the bloke complaining about?” — and then made a remark to the effect that women are the ones who always complain. German-language outlets reported it as “Frauen beschweren sich nun mal, sorry”; Sky Sports rendered it in English as “Women, women – they’re always complaining, sorry.”

The PDC confirmed on Monday that both strands had gone to the independent regulator. Sky Sports quoted its statement as “the matter on stage and interview has now been referred to the Darts Regulation Authority”, followed by no further comment. The governing body has said nothing about what it expects the outcome to be, and the DRA has not announced a charge.

What Ross Smith actually said

Smith’s own response is the part the headlines mostly skipped. Writing on X on Sunday, he took the defeat on himself: “I don’t blame Mensur for me losing that game. I missed two match darts. Simple as that.” He also explained that he could not see what was going on behind him and was working it out from the crowd’s reaction — which is the whole problem with the gesture, given where a thrower’s eyes have to be.

That did not stop him making his view of it plain. He called Suljovic “an absolute helmet” and said “karma will come around”. Smith went into Basel top of the European Tour Order of Merit, so a last-16 exit will not have cost him much beyond the irritation.

Suljovic’s apology

His position changed between Sunday and Monday. Having been combative on stage, he posted an apology on Instagram on Monday afternoon covering both halves of the affair. On the match: “I didn’t properly realise that Ross was throwing for the match”, with the emotion of the moment getting the better of him and the timing, he accepted, looking unfair. He added that Smith is one of the best players in the world and that he wanted to apologise to him.

On the interview he was blunter: the comment about women was “completely inappropriate”, he “should never have said that”, and he apologised to all women for it. None of that removes the referral. The DRA is a separate body from the PDC and reaches its own view, and an apology is a mitigating factor in a case rather than a conclusion to one.

What can the DRA actually do?

The DRA handles disciplinary matters for PDC tour card holdersindependently of the PDC itself. Its rule book gives it a graded scale — the first question is whether behaviour amounts to minor, non-minor or serious misconduct, or to nothing requiring action at all. The sanctions available run from a public reprimand through fines and suspensions to outright expulsion, and a suspension can itself be suspended, so that it only bites if the player offends again inside a stated window.

Two practical points follow. One, nothing has been decided: a referral is the start of a process, and the DRA generally publishes the detail only once proceedings have closed. Two, Suljovic is free to play while it runs.

What has the DRA handed down for conduct like this?

There is a recent and unusually clear guide, because in August 2026 the DRA published its first case list since 2022 and published a backdated case list covering hearings from January 2023 to June 2026. The conduct cases on it fall into a tight band.

The pattern is a fine in the low thousands and a ban that is handed down but not served. Van Barneveld’s second entry is the instructive one: he picked up a fresh matter while a suspended three-month ban was still live, and the DRA limited itself to a formal warning rather than activating it. Suspended bans in darts have, on the evidence of that list, been treated as a deterrent rather than a trigger.

The timing is awkward

Basel was the fourteenth of the season’s fifteen European Tour events. The last one, the Dutch Darts Championship at the MECC Maastricht, runs from 16 to 18 October, with the draw made at midday on the Thursday. Four days after it finishes the European Championship starts at the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, from 22 to 25 October, with the top 32 of the European Tour Order of Merit in the field. That leaves a narrow corridor in which a disciplinary process would have to move very fast to affect anything, and no indication that it will.

For Suljovic the sporting shame of it is obvious enough. He went to Basel through the qualifying route, beat a three-time world champion, reached his best European Tour stage in five years, and the only part of it anyone is discussing lasted a few seconds.