Scandal in Kosovo: Two Greek referees accused of taking bribes / News - Basketnews.com

Prishtina club claims that two Greek referees, who arrived to help officiate Kosovan playoff games, received bribes before Game 3 of the semifinal series, and later admitted the wrongdoing. The opponent club - Trepca - denies having done anything malicious. Local police and Kosovan Federation are investigating the matter.

Credit: Youtube/Federata e Basketbollit e Kosoves FBK Credit Youtube/Federata e Basketbollit e Kosoves FBK

Basketball teams in Kosovo are currently competing in the semifinal stage of the country's championship. During one of the games, the biggest scandal in the nation's basketball history, as one local outlet portrays, shook the league.

The semifinal series is being played in the best-of-five format. After Game 3 between Prishtina and Trepca, the capital city's club released a statement on the team's Facebook page, detailing potentially scandalous things.

The Kosovan Basketball Federation (FBK) had asked the Hellenic Basketball Federation for help regarding refereeing in the final stages of the tournament. Prishtina claim that two of the referees were bribed before the third game that took place on April 20th.

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.

The case has been handed over to local police. Prishtina claim that it will be addressed with FIBA and the Greek Federation as well, seeking punishment for the two officials, while the Greek federation is already investigating the case.

Credit Kosovo Basketball Federation

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] Zagklis 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 noofficial 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.

The opponent team - KB Trepca - responded to the post, saying that they're not responsible for the acts.

"Trepca does not deal with things that do not belong to the sport and with games outside the court," the club states. "We invite the responsible investigative bodies of our state and the Basketball Federation of Kosovo to do their job and debunk Prishtina's claims. We also invite and will insist as a club that not only these claims but all suspicions of irregularities in Kosovar basketball in recent years be cleared."

"We will go to the end of this case and insist that all alleged irregularities are revealed," Trepca continue. "As a club, we are completely clean, and in no way are we involved in these developments."

The Kosovan Federation hasn't addressed the matter publicly yet.

Although Prishtina's coach was ejected in the fourth quarter, Prishtina won Game 3 of the series and now lead 2-1. Game 4 is scheduled for Sunday, April 23rd.

Thank you for reading us! Help us even more.