By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Following Euroleague Basketball’s announcement regarding last Friday’s incident in Greece, the EuroLeague Head Coaches Board issued a press release underlining how important the officials are for basketball and condemning violence of any kind.
Per EuroLeague Head Coaches Board: “After the altercations that took place against officials the EuroLeague Head Coaches Board, condemns these acts of violence and would like to reiterate that coaches will always respect and defend the roles of referees in the game of basketball. We strongly defend their integrity and we are very well aware of their indispensable importance as the guardians of fair play. Without the role of referees the game would not exist and neither coaches, players or fans would be able to enjoy the beauty of the EuroLeague. We condemn this act, or any act of violence be it against referees or any member of the Euroleague family.”
“This is a criminal act”
“I want to make it clear from the very first sentence that this is a criminal act and that we hope that all relevant stakeholders will take proper conclusions from this act,” Executive Director Goran Sasic stressed, “The EHCB feel the obligations we have towards future generations and we are committed in respecting the values of the sport and those are respect, solidarity and integrity. We transmit those values to our families and players and we expect every fan to follow us in example in order to be role models for our kids. We are all OneTeam in the same Euroleague family.”
“We coaches give our best efforts to create a better atmosphere and clean environments inside and outside the basketball courts for players, referees and coaches,” added Simone Pianigiani, “We want to create the best possible basketball show which we surely have in Euroleague and we do all that for our fans. We don’t think that violence stands next to those values we want to transmit.”