By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Euroleague Basketball has chosen eight of its best referees from the 2018-19 season to oversee the games of the 2019 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. The list of nominees is a mix of youth and experience. Two referees are set to officiate in their first Final Four, while four others have worked more than a dozen previous championship games between them.
The selected referees are Matej Boltauzer, Mehdi Difallah, Luigi Lamonica, Olegs Latisevs, Robert Lottermoser, Anne Panther, Fernando Rocha and Boris Ryzhyk.
The most experienced among them are Lamonica, Lottermoser and Ryzhyk, who will be working their respective ninth Final Fours. Lamonica has worked the championship game on five occasions, Ryzhyk did so four times and Lottermoser twice. Latisevs is set to officiate at his eighth Final Four, and he has also worked the championship game twice. Boltauzer heads to his fifth Final Four and Rocha to his fourth. Five of them return after officiating the 2018 Final Four, including the trio of Lamonica, Latisevs and Ryzhyk, who worked the championship game together.
Difallah’s nomination comes in just his second season officiating Euroleague Basketball games, while Panther, the first female referee chosen for a Final Four, is in her third Euroleague Basketball season. Both Difallah and Panther worked EuroLeague Playoffs games in 2017-18 and 2018-19. Panther officiated at the 2017 EuroCup Finals and Difallah at the 2018 EuroCup Finals. Rocha was on the crew for Game 3 of this season’s EuroCup Finals.
The officials have also stood out in other top-class international competition. Latisevs, Lottermoser, Panther and Ryzhyk took part in the basketball tournament at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Ryzhyk was part of the crew that officiated the gold-medal game.
Source: EuroLeague