By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Juan Carlos Arteaga, one of the most known and respected European referees, dropped a bomb with an interview in the Spanish newspaper “Marca“. As he said: “Somebody tried to bribe me before officiating an European Final. I refused. But it’s certain that not everybody does”.
In his career Arteaga has officiated in three European finals in senior level. Those are the Euroleague finals of 2002 between Panathinaikos and Kinder Bologna and of 2009 between Panathinaikos and CSKA Moscow. Also he was one of the three referees in the Eurobasket 2013 final between France and Lithuania.
UPDATE: Basketnews.gr reached Euroleague’s director of referees and he denied any knowledge of the case: “As I can understand by reading the interview, he wasn’t speaking about Euroleague or any other European competition. He probably means a final is some other continent”.