By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos‘ President Manos Papadopoulos commented on Olympiacos‘ demand about foreign referees during the recent meeting held by the Boards of teams participating in the Greek league.
“Teams cannot control officiating. We can never seem to agree. A referee can be good for one team and bad for another and so on. There are laws and rules. Olympiacos mentions that they won’t play unless foreign referees officiate the game. And we [Panathinaikos] say we want other refs. And other teams too. We will not participate in a game unless officiated by Chinese referees. We will only play with Chinese ones from now on. There are rules. If Olympiacos won’t play in the derby, I can’t cry over it”, he mentioned in a caustic tone.
While there were also reports about Panathinaikos threatening to leave the Greek League, if foreign referees call the game against Panathinaikos, the Greens denied that such a threat was made.
During the meeting, Olympiacos, Aris, Kimi and Prometheas referred to professional officiating and generally called for the referees’ affiliation to the Greek League and not to the Greek basketball federation.