By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Following the events during the Final game of Copa del Rey between Real Madrid and Barcelona and its aftermath, AEBA (Asociación de Árbitros – Association of Referees) gave an official statement acknowledging and apologizing for the mistakes made by referees and accepting any decision the ACB League might take regarding the situation.
The announcement by AEBA is as follows:
Faced with the situations produced in the final match of the Copa del Rey held yesterday, the Association of Referees wants to state:
1) We recognize the existence of serious errors at the end of the match.
2) We accept and abide by the decisions that the ACB may take regarding these errors.
3) We give ACB our total willingness to continue collaborating in our continuous technical training during the season for the best possible arbitration.
4) We express our maximum confidence in the arbitration collective.
Our ACB referees are at the highest technical level in the world and this is internationally recognized in all the tournaments and championships that we attend, but we do not cease to be human and make mistakes. Errors that hurt and affect us and that is why we work and will continue doing it every week to try to avoid them.
It hurts us, as lovers of this sport as we all are, to be in all the media for this circumstance and to be guilty of it.
It affects us, because we respect every club, team and fan, and behind every error, there is an arbitrator who is a person and who suffers as most do because of the mistake made.
We work closely and daily with the ACB Technical Department, which with all the means at its disposal, helps us to grow as arbitrators at all levels (knowledge of the game, arbitration technique, rules and emotional management) and thus be best prepared for the most of 300 decisions that each referee must make in each game, for the end of matches with as much tension and as stressful as yesterday, but that have always been and are the essence of our sport that we love so much.
We sincerely wish that nothing like this happens again, so we can enjoy in what unites us, our sport, the BASKETBALL.