The President of the Basketball Federation of Kosovo, Arben Fetahu, has said that from the decisive semi-final between Pristina and Trepça, which takes place on Thursday, and in the final, there will be foreign referees again. As Fetahu has stated, their delegation was made before the recent incidents in Kosovo basketball.
Kosovar basketball was shocked on Saturday. Sigal Prishtina wrote in a statement that it prevented the match with Trepça from being arranged, which was played on Thursday in the capital. That match had to be led by two referees from Greece and one from Kosovo. But on the day of the match, the Greek referees left and three local referees officiated. The other teams participating in the "final-four" of the Superliga, Trepça, Peja and Ylli, immediately denied being involved in this case.
Even though the last three playoff games were judged by local referees, the head of FBK announced that starting from Thursday's match, there will be foreign referees on the court again. He said that they have agreements with four federations and that the delegation of judges was made in accordance with the competition calendar.
"According to the plan we currently have, there will be foreign referees in the remaining semi-finals as well as in the final. We have bilateral agreements with four federations and we have delegated the judges according to the competition calendar", said Fetahu on "Sporti na KTV".
He said that the decision to bring in foreign referees came from the clubs participating in the playoffs.
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"The FBK's decision on foreign referees came from the participating clubs themselves. Not because of the suspicion of the bias of the local judges, but not to violate the great investment that has been made in basketball. The clubs have said that the level of referees is not at the same level as the development of basketball on the floor. 5-6 referees left us in the last seasons, now we have 8-9 referees who can referee matches of the level that basketball is taking place. It was confirmed in today's and yesterday's match that the local referees can do their job properly", added Fetahu.
Fetahu has said that the quick reaction of FBK and the clubs after the publication of Sigal Pristina's communique about the two Greek judges is quite hopeful.
"It was necessary to react quickly and show that we have no tolerance for such cases. It was also as a preventive reaction", he said.
The head of FBK said that he was informed about the case by Sigal Prishtina. He stated that he has seen the video that Sigal Pristina claims to have where the Greek judges are seen riding in a car, but added that he does not possess it.
Fetahu said that the person with whom the Greek judges met is "a person from Mitrovica, close to Trepca, but he is not inside Trepca".
"There is someone who I believe has had the tendency for his own benefits because he has explicitly talked about the impact on the result or any part of it. In most cases of betting in basketball, as we have been trained, bets are placed for a specific quarter and not for the final result", said Fetahu.
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Greek judges, according to Fetah, have said that they have not accepted any means or transaction for possible collusion. But, as the head of FBK has stated, when there are such meetings, it is considered that there has been an ethical violation.
