Pristina complained via its Facebook page that its opponent in the semi-final of the local league tried to bribe two Greeks referees, while the Greek Basketball Federation asked for some more information on the issue.
Pristina, a team from Kosovo, has filed a complaint via a lengthy social media post. The club claim that, before the match against Trepca for the semi-final of the local league playoffs, some people approached the Greek referees in order to bribe them in favor of Trepca.
The Federation of Kosovo had asked the Greek Federation to provide some help in the officiating department by sending out referees to Kosovo.
In a statement, Pristina said referees Dimitris Zacharis and Anastasios Kardaris were approached by Trepca reps and therefore left Kosovo and did not officiate the game.
They also claim to have reiterated the evidence to Kosovo police in anticipation of prosecution. In fact, they say that FIBA will also be informed, while the Greek federation is already investigating the case.
The Pristina post reads:
“Dear citizens of the Republic Of Kosovo,
Dear Basketball fans,
Thanks to the information of the honest people of our city, as well as the intelligence of the people dedicated to our club, after some doubts we are informed that on April 20, the exact day of the third semi-final between Pristina and Trepca we discovered the biggest scandal in Kosovo basketball history since the beginning of its existence and prevented the greatest moral and sporting damage to our club.
Confirmed by information and video recordings, we have discovered and reported a person for a criminal act. That individual was seen putting the two referees of the game, Zacharis and Kardaris, in a Mercedes car and offering them bribes for the match of Pristina against Trepca, on the guests’ behalf.
After confirming the fact, we informed the Federation, who spoke with the referees and they admitted the fact. That’s why the referees didn’t whistle the game. We reported the incident to the Kosovo police before the start of the game and expect prosecutions against the individuals involved as soon as possible.
We are committed to achieving results only through sports and not in any other way. We have a professional and ethical responsibility to everyone and especially to the honest spectators and innocent children who come to see a beautiful sporting event and to support our team so that it can win in an honest way.
For the future, we call on the relevant law authorities to take action in order to save sport and basketball, punish all those involved, and permanently from ban sporting events those who want to corrupt justice.
In the meantime, we will appeal to the largest basketball organization, FIBA, Secretary General [Andreas] Zaglis and the Greek Basketball Federation, for them to take measures to punish and prevent such cases.”
The Greek Federation’s response was instant after Pristina’s social media post. The authority mentioned there’s no official information, but when it became aware of the issue in an unofficial way (since it was a social media post, it immediately sent a letter to the Federation of Kosovo, asking for official information.
According to the Greek Federation, the purpose of that move was to prevent the defilement of Greek referees (if there is such a case) and no evidence of malpractice is found, or to immediately create a file and proceed with all necessary actions and investigations if any evidence of wrongdoing emerges.
Trepca’s response also came through social media, where they defended themselves, stressing that they won’t allow their name to be defamed.
“We read carefully the announcement released by Pristina that attempts were made to manipulate the last semi-final of the play-offs,” the club’s press release states.
“Our club is not and does not feel part of these developments. Trepca is absolutely clean and does not deal with things that have nothing to do with the sport.
In this case, we are talking about ‘games’ off the court. Therefore, we call on the relevant investigative bodies of the state and The Basketball Federation of Kosovo to do their job and debunk Pristina’s allegations. We will insist as a club that these allegations and all suspicions of irregularities in Kosovo basketball in recent years be cleared up.
With dedication and determination w,e will protect our work, our sweat and the image of the club. We will go to the end of this case and insist that all alleged irregularities be exposed.”
Source: Basket News