Panathinaikos take actions: harsh letter to EuroLeague, fan's ban and Bodiroga in Athens / News - Basketnews.com

Panathinaikos will meet EuroLeague president Dejan Bodiroga in Athens to discuss what's happening with the organization.

Credit: Vangelis Stolis Credit Vangelis Stolis

Panathinaikos Athens have sent a letter of protest to the EuroLeague organization regarding the refereeing in a game against Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade, SDNA.gr and Gazzetta.gr report.

Player of the Game EFF 28 Mathias Lessort Points 15 Accuracy 5-7 Rebounds 11 Assists 2

The Greens informed EuroLeague that the club will not tolerate similar officiating mistakes.

PAO also proposed a change in the "coach challenge" rule and wait for a visit of EuroLeague president Dejan Bodiroga in order to discuss matters concerning the organization.

In addition, Panathinaikos are set to ban the fan, who caused the temporary interruption of yesterday's game.

Panathinaikos' statements in detail:

1. Panathinaikos sent a harsh letter to the EuroLeague after what took place in the match against Partizan. Unfortunately, the latter game proved that not a single thing has changed yet in the referee's bad writings. The club will not tolerate the repetition of such incidents that grossly hurt our team (the relevant material has been sent).

2. At the same time, our team sends a proposal in order to change the regulation regarding the right to use "coach challenge". We want to reduce the mistakes that affect the results.

3. The president of the EuroLeague, Dejan Bodiroga, will travel to Athens in the next few days where many important issues related to the product and what is happening in the organization will be discussed. It needs to be addressed immediately.

4. Our team fully understands the indignation and anger of the Panathinaikos community. Nevertheless, the club cannot accept and allow behaviors that harm the prestige and the image and deprive our fans of their presence on the court. Therefore, the club informs that all the necessary measures will be taken against the sports fan whose action caused the match to be stopped and was also recorded by the referees on the match sheet. This fan will not be allowed to enter our team's matches again.

3-pointers this season

39%9,0Points made:9,0Accuracy:38,6%Place in standings:10Record max:11Record min:6Most made 3FGs:Derrick WilliamsTeamEuroLeagueStatisticsSchedule

5. We are all united and stand up against all the unacceptable events that have caused indignation for all of us.

Referees made a few debatable decisions throughout the Panathinaikos-Partizan game, with the biggest mistake being not calling a foul on Dante Exum against Dwayne Bacon.

Bacon was going for a dunk, and Exum clearly hit his hand, but the officials didn't whistle for a foul. Head coach Dejan Radonjic also received a technical foul.

Credit Vassilis Stolis

After the match, Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos took to Instagram to attack both the EuroLeague and the match's referees.

"Surely one of the worst massacres you've done to us," the businessman posted in a story first.

Giannakopoulos went on to repost an episode of Mathias Lessort supposedly fouling Marius Grigonis, then a bunch of clips where Partizan players are said to commit unnoticed travelling violations.

"This is a robbery of our time, energy, and money," he wrote later. "You have been stealing our time, energy, and money for the last 20 years but when we asked to leave your rigged competition you didn't allow us. Why?"

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