Here’s one way to slow down the fearsome-looking Fenerbahce Ülker: detain a key starter. It seems as though Romain Sato won’t be suiting up for his side’s Euroleague game against Union Olimpija after being detained at Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport yesterday afternoon for an alleged violation it’s a bit difficult to believe…
Reported the Slovenia-based Kosarka, “Kranjska Police confirmed yesterday that they arrested a foreign national who did not have the relevant documents. ‘On October 18, 2012 at around 14:30, border control officers at Pučnik Airport found that the 31-year-old man, a citizen of the Central African Republic, had arrived with a false passport. Police officers have detained the man and today the case will be referred to the District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Kranj.”
And that sound you just heard was hundreds of Euroleague fantasy basketball managers shrieking in anguish…
Update: Fenerbahce officials are firing back at Slovenian authorities’ handling of the matter. Explains Euro-Step, the Turkish club’s official website unleashed a barrage of criticism vis-a-vis the holding of Sato in Ljubljana, calling Sato’s detainment an “international scandal at the bureaucratic level, not merely simple friction between two Euroleague clubs.”
Translated the ‘Step further: “The approach of Slovenian officials against a person who has a Schengen visa and has visited bunch of other European countries as well as the United States with the same passport cannot be understood.”
