Threatening messages at the home of referee Karpanos

After the yesterday’s announcement of the ODKEwho spoke of “a reprehensible act at the home of one of the participating referees of the Basket League finals”, it became known that it was about Ilias Karpanos.

In the porch of his house in Patras threatening messages were written by strangers with spray paint on Friday night, as reported by Live Sport. The police department was informed of the incident and provides discretionary protection to the referee, who was in the trio of the first final between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos (86-92) together with Mr. Papapetrou and Agrafiotis. According to the first data, the perpetrators were two people and investigations are ongoing.

The Federation of Basketball Referees of Greece in the announcement it issued yesterday said:The Federation of Basketball Referees of Greece supports all its Referees and defends their prestige. It condemns every act of violence and intimidation both towards the referees and towards the persons of their families, on the occasion of yesterday’s reprehensible act at the home of one of the participating referees of the Basket League finals. Our Federation – as it has always done until today – will submit to the competent authorities any evidence that constitutes evidence of illegal action against our referees, as long as it is a case of ex officio prosecution. We emphasize once again the undivided support and trust in the Greek Referees who are of the highest level and perfect personalities. Matches are won within the four lines of the pitch with all the human errors of players and referees. To those who want to dynamit the atmosphere with their statements or posts and publications in the electronic press, we simply inform them that under no circumstances will we allow insulting the personality of our referees. We also invite all the agencies to cooperate, to take all the necessary measures for the smooth conduct of the remaining games of the series of the finals of the Basket League».