By Semih Tuna/ Stuna@eurohoops.net
More reactions as Turkish Basketball Federation vice-president and former player Omer Onan added to the fallout and also stressed the need for the players to feel safe in Georgia.
Turkey has made an official protest demanding the replay of at least the last 4:30 in the regulation of the 2022 EuroBasket Group A Gameday 3 contest versus Georgia. Additional demands include footage from the tunnel to confirm the allegations of players and Tbilisi Arena security staff attacking Furkan Korkmaz. Besides the Philadelphia 76ers player and head coach Ergin Ataman publicly commenting on the incidents, Onan shared insight on the developing situation.
“After the match, we sat down with FIBA officials. The FIBA official was going to return today, but he gave up and did not return, he stayed here. There are two or three separate scandals here. Hidayet Türkoğlu also contacted FIBA. They are very embarrassed, we see that. It is important for us to ensure the safety of these guys. If this security cannot be provided, we have no place here,” he said, “FIBA has also increased its security measures here. They even increased it in practice. They’re making a move on this. Now we have an objection. This is a very clear wrong ruling. Every one knows too. We’ll see how they decide. Apart from that, as far as we have heard, FIBA has not received the images. It will likely either be corrupted or cut off. But this does not change that there was an attack on our conditioner and Furkan. Two ejected players might argue, but they sat there on their bench and then ran inside, attacked Furkan, and kicked our conditioner on the ground. These are real. FIBA will impose a historic penalty. We follow this.”
“FIBA decides on our objection with a rule error,” he focused on the protest regarding the 22 seconds discounted during the scuffle leading to the ejections, “In my opinion, if they accept our objection, the match will be played on the 8th of the month. Continues from 4:48 or is played again. Sometimes we talk in milliseconds. There are 22 seconds here. There is no match in the past where 22 seconds has not been played before. This is a very serious scandal. It’s a pity that no one there noticed that either.”
“We see that the Secretary General of FIBA stays here and tells that he is very sorry. Of course, I also have to say this here. FIBA’s European President is a Turk, Turgay Demirel. It’s okay if he doesn’t call us, but here he didn’t even call the coach, Furkan Korkmaz, our conditioner who was kicked on the ground. We have experienced such an attack, so normally he should have called and asked what happened, but did not. That’s a sad thing,” added Onan, “At the end of the match, we talked about the police incidents with our embassy. They also told our Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Such an attitude is absurd. We’ve avoided very big events. There would be a great apocalypse as soon as one of them hit someone in that turmoil. There was a lot of hustle and bustle. This is also not acceptable.”
FIBA is expected to announce its decision, including potential suspensions, within the next few hours.
“Now we await the decision of FIBA,” confirmed Onan, “The images still have not reached FIBA, but serious guarantees have been made regarding our safety. We will look at the decision to be made after that. We will wait for the next decision.”
“It’s not something that two ejected players face in the middle here. There are three players coming in and battering both our player and our conditioner. Then two players come and sit on the bench,” he furthered, “If there is no image and says Georgia is not cooperating, FIBA should have a very severe sanction. FIBA can’t get over this. Here are the sanctions. If the cameras are not working, if the police are not taking any action, then we don’t need to be here, but now we have been given very serious guarantees regarding security.”
“Whether the match will be replayed or not and if the footage has been deleted, it should be heavily sanctioned. We will follow them,” he concluded on expecting FIBA’s ruling, “[Tornike] Shengelia is injured, but they pulled someone off the bench and accredited him to put him there. They are calling as and saying let’s apologize, but the image will come. This is FIBA’s honor and dignity. We come here with the assurance of FIBA. This is FIBA’s debt of honor. Georgia itself calls us and says let’s come to apologize. There is a very serious panic here as well right now. We will see how both the rule error and these disgraces will turn out.”