By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos‘ majority shareholder, Dimitris Giannakopoulos, has been sanctioned with a 5-game suspension to attend Euroleague games and a fine of €10.000 for his threatening actions against the referees, the competition has announced.
The incident happened in the semifinal game of Panathinaikos against Fenerbahce, with Giannakopoulos being restrained by his security. Panathinaikos owner will not attend the 3rd place game and he is already back in Athens, so he will also miss four games next season.
Speaking on the incident on the official Final Four press conference, EuroLeague CEO Paulius Motiejunas commented: ” It’s really unfortunate that we had a very good behavior by the fans because other than the chants, which I’m sorry, but I don’t understand Greek or Turkish, had no incidents between the fans. I’m so grateful of that and this is the picture that we show to the people of Abu Dhabi and UAE. So it’s really unfortunate we had we had the events that we had with mr. Giannakopoulos who is very supportive of his team”.
As Motiejunas added: “He’s the owner of one of the best teams and the hot teams in in in whole Europe. The way the team is improving the arena and and everything around the game of basketball, it’s really amazing and you have to give full credit so it’s really sad that an outcome was like this we just published. All I can say it’s unfortunate”.
Apart from Giannakopoulos, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Fenerbahce and Panathinaikos coach Ergin Ataman were also sanctioned.
- Olympiacos Piraeus has been sanctioned with a fine of €10,000, for the offensive chants by its fans, under Article 29.2.f) of the Euroleague Basketball Disciplinary Code.
- Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens has been sanctioned with a fine of €7,000, for the offensive chants by its fans, under Article 29.2.f) of the Euroleague Basketball Disciplinary Code.
- Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul has been sanctioned with a fine of €5,000, for the offensive chants by its fans, under Article 29.2.f) of the Euroleague Basketball Disciplinary Code.
- Ergin Ataman, head coach of Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens, has been sanctioned with a fine of €10,000 for the undertaking of actions that cause the abnormal interruption of a game under Article 27.2.a) of the Euroleague Basketball Disciplinary Code.