Slovenian fans and specialists felt very awkward because of the referees in the game against Georgia. During and after the game some fans and specialists apologized us. They sincerely highlighted the partiality of the referees. They did not do it to comfort Georgian fans and journalists.

During the game, especially in the second and fourth quarters, the Georgians fans scanned: “Referee, shame”.

Latvian referee Olegs Latisevs was the most biased from the referees. He whistled unfairly so many times in the favor of the Slovenians that we, Georgians could not hide our indignation. Most of the Slovenian fans inclined their eyes because of the inconvenience.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter Vato Natsvlishvili, former captain of the Georgian national team and current president of the Tbilisi Basketball Federation and basketball club “Dinamo”, protested openly and noisily. I have known Vato for a long time. He has always been patient but partiality of the referees exceeded all limits. Vato protested originally. He stood up, ran down the steps of the tribune, came up to the arena and shouted at Latvian Olegs Latisevs several times. It happened when one of the teams had timeout and the referees were near to that tribune where we were sitting. Vato chose a good moment to express his protest. It was obvious that the referees heard his words. Of course, they did not react on it… Security service did not prevent Mr. Vato from doing it. They also knew that the referees were not judging fairly. Natsvlishvili was not going to rush to the arena. His protest lasted one minute. The Slovenian fans did not say anything. After the game one of the Slovenian journalists asked me about Vato. He also seemed to pay attention to this episode.

Today morning I met Vato and asked about this moment. He told us: “I have played basketball for a long time. I have played in many foreign countries and I have never seen such biased referees. So, in the fourth quarter I ran down the steps of the tribune and told the Latvian referee that it was not fair”.

To the question “what you said to the referee”, Vato Natsvlishvili answered: “I expressed my protest strongly, reasonably and correctly. Referees understand the language of basketball players”.

By the way, after this protest the Latvian referee and his Bosnian colleague became more objective. But it did not last long. At the end of the fourth quarter they judged in the same style.

In Celje and Lasko fans said that the Georgian national team showed a very beautiful and interesting game against Slovenia. As for the failure, perhaps, we cannot blame only partiality of the referees. There were some other reasons too but such behavior of the referees had influence of the game.

Tengiz Pachkoria, Celje-Lasko, specially for www.worldsport.ge

Photos by Khatuna Gabitashvili

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