By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
According to TV Station “Open TV,” a Molotov cocktail was thrown by unknown perpetrators to Panagiotis Anastopoulos’ house and thankfully it has not exploded.
Anastopoulos is the referee who yesterday informed the Greek Referees Union and the Greek Basketball Federation that he will be unable to officiate the game of Olympiacos versus Promitheas, following an incident that took place on Monday night, where a mob of nearly a hundred gathered outside his house while chanting swears against him.
Anastopoulos was also one of the referees who officiated the Greek Cup semifinal game against Panathinaikos and Olympiacos. The latter left at halftime in protest and announced that “from now on the team won’t compete in any game of domestic competitions against any opponent if the game is officiated by referees Anastopoulos, Manos and Panagiotou”.
In the meantime, today the Greek league general assembly met in order to decide the next steps of the season. Olympiacos proposed a postponement of the playoffs and offered part of the club’s television contract revenues to other teams in order for changes to be made to the league immediately, especially on the refereeing department.
The offer, however, was denied by all other clubs. Tomorrow the sports judge of the league is expected to announce the punishment of Panathinaikos who forfeited in protest the last game of the season against Kimi and on Monday the final standings of the league are expected to be ratified. If nothing else happens in the meantime, the playoffs are also expected to start on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Panathinaikos will probably face Olympiacos in the first round of the playoffs and despite yesterday’s reaction of the Greens and the announcement about withdrawing from the league, Dimitris Gianakopoulos confirmed that his team is ready to play. As the owner of the Greens said after the general assembly of the league: “We are awaiting for Olympiacos in order to beat them by 40 points”.
In the other hand, Olympiacos has announced that they will not play in any Greek league game against Panathinaikos without non-Greek referees and they have already forfeited their recent regular season game versus the Greens.