Referee scandals in Russia lead to protest, in Italy to suspensions

April 26, 2012

A BallinEurope question has been reopened today, to the detriment of Russian professional basketball’s reputation. About two weeks ago, a PBL game which will likely determine the league’s upcoming playoff tournament saw an extremely high number of, let’s say, questionable calls.

According to Spain-based SoloBasket, these were certainly enough oddity for the losing side, Spartak St. Petersburg, to file an official protest in the wake of the 82-73 loss to Triumph Lyubertsy.

At that time, BiE wondered whether this was an “epic display of flopping, personal vendetta or match-fixing conspiracy.” Clearly head coach Jure Zdovc has at least personally eliminated the “flopping” option.

About 1½ weeks prior to BiE’s look at the crucial PBL game, Enrico Cellini had taken a look at what was deemed a possible “classic Italian mess” involving a massive referee protest against the nation’s official referees’ committee. At that time, the CIA (the committee’s oddly serendipitous acronym in the native language) announced 15 zebras would be suspended – later upping that number to 20. Subsequently, another 12 refs also received suspensions, leading BiE to wonder if there’s *anyone* calling Italian games.

And people say the officiating in NBA games is problematic…

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This post was published on April 26, 2012