By Semih Tunas/ STuna@eurohoops.net
Tbilisi, Georgia – Hedo Turkoglu is present in Tbilisi and he didn’t hesitate to attack both Georgia and FIBA about the Furkan Korkmaz incident.
Turkolgu talked in Turkish, saying among other things: “My view is that FIBA is collapsing day by day in terms of referee errors and organisation. Especially when we look at the events in Georgia and Germany during the tournament, we can clearly see that FIBA is losing power day by day”
Turkoglu also talked in English, saying: “This is a scandal for European Basketball. I am seeing everyday that FIBA and FIBA Europe are collapsing. Officials, scandals, organization scandals. These scandals are not easy to accept. We will fight for our rights”.
It has to be noted that Turk Turgay Demirel is the president of FIBA Europe.
The attack on Georgia was even harder: “It should be questioned that an institution like FIBA gives the EuroBasket organization to third world countries like Georgia. The fact that they played the three monkeys (ed. note: Hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing) after the attack on our player both surprises us and saddens us in terms of basketball”.
Turkoglu also addressed the position of Georgia about provocations from the Turkish side: “If they are thinking that is a provocation, why they don’t show the cameras to public ? If they have the guts, why they don’t show the cameras what happened in front of the locker room? Then we will see who is lying, who is not”.
Μeanwhile, the Turkish Basketball Federation officially announced that they will go to CAS for everything that happened in the game against Georgia, because they are not satisfied with FIBA’s decision.
Per the press reelase: In the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 Group A, on Sunday September 4th, 2022, our A Men’s National Team played a game with Georgia, one of the hosts of the organization; During the game which was played in Tbilisi Arena and after the game, a big quarrel took place in the corridors going to the changing rooms.
In addition to this incident, although the game was stopped with 4 minutes and 48 seconds left in the game, after Duda Sanadze from Georgia fouled our national player, Furkan Korkmaz, the game clock continued at 4 minutes and 26 seconds,. As the Turkish Basketball Federation, we condemn the decision to reject the protest of the rule error we made at the end of the match for the 22-second lost time.
As Turkish Basketball Federation we do not accept the decision of FIBA which dismissed our objection on the grounds that “There was a timekeeping error during the 4th quarter of the Game, but it could not be determined that this time loss would change the result of the Game”. We shall claim all our rights at International Court of Arbitration for Sport CAS on the decision taken.
Moreover, we trust our National Team players and our technical team and believe that if FIBA which has control over the administration of basketball in Europe does not build up a fair governing climate, European basketball shall change for the worse from its present standing.