Sato spends a night in detention

on October 18th, 2012 | 7 comments

By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net

One of the craziest stories ever in Euroleague happened on Thursday. As it was reported from Slovenian press, Fenerbahce/Ulker’s forward Romain Sato was detained by Slovenian authorities in Ljubljana international airport because his passport was a “total fake”.

The people of the Turkish team claimed at first that the problem was just a bureaucratic misunderstanding, contacted the Turkish embassy in Ljubljana and were hoping that Sato will be available for the team practice at Thursday night. However, things didn’t play out that way.

As it was announced officially by Fenerbahce/ Ulker, Sato sended the night in detention at the airport. The press release entintled “Skandal” accuses Slovenian authorities of breaking the international law: “Our player Romain Sato’s passport was blocked by Slovenian police. Legal and formal investigations were started by our club. Romain Sato, who owns a Schengen visa, has entered many European countries and USA. Our player Romain Sato was submitted with an illegal process. It’s clear that this process was done in order to prevent him from playing at Friday’s game. Sato will stay this night in police detention and will not be able to play tomorrow. We have to note that, this is not a problem between clubs. That’s totally an international SCANDAL. Details will be shared soon”.

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Comments (7)

tony Saturday - 20 / 10 / 2012 Reply

Some exhausting hours are waiting the Slovenian players at the airport in Istanbul. They probably will not be able to sleep night before the game
s5moho Friday - 19 / 10 / 2012 Reply

"He is supposed to be on a plane to Istanbul. The Turkish embassy confirmed that his passport is fake so the police was right. The authorities didnt want to complicate things so they just sent him back to Turkey and the Turkish authorities will have to deal with him. I think now you see that there was no conspiracy, it was his fault and you guys will solve it now. I called the Turkish embassy myself so all of this info is true."
s5moho Friday - 19 / 10 / 2012 Reply

Hello! Romain Sato HAD FAKE PASSPORT! That is reallity. So it is his problem, that a person with such standard travels as a refugee... Congrats Slovene police.
Dogus Friday - 19 / 10 / 2012 Reply

That is obviously what you do around there. Sato has been to USA with that so called fake passport.he got a schengen visa from another EU member embassy. He is an athlete who plays for his national team who also played for PAO and Siena for many years in the euroleague. How can it be explained otherwise? This is an outrageous attempt but it should be remembered that the slovenian team will have to come back for a rematch n just so u know radiator FB Ulker has both have the money n the power to reciprocate such a despicable act.Fb ulker will be victorious tomorrow whatever cheap sleezy game the slovenians might have left.
Ali Tevfik Thursday - 18 / 10 / 2012 Reply

Slovenia should be totally banned by FIBA and Euroleauge administration
- Radiator Friday - 19 / 10 / 2012 Reply
  
  Ali chill. Union Olimpija dosen't have power nor money to do such a thing. And if it would have, it wouldn't do that. It's not kind of business we do around here.
- tomazek Friday - 19 / 10 / 2012 Reply
  
  Ali cool down. How do you think that the poorest Club in Euroleague could achieve sth. like that?