The Turkish Basketball Federation is threatening to withdraw its team from the Euros, following the alleged attack on its player Furkan Korkmaz by Georgian players and the Tbilisi police.
What happened Sunday evening in Tbilisi at the end of the match between Turkey and Georgia, counting for the preliminary round of Eurobasket and won to everyone’s surprise by the Georgians with the score of 88-83 after extra time ? According to the Turkish Federation, Furkan Korkmaz was assaulted by Georgian players and the Tbilisi police after being excluded from the meeting, and they are now threatening to withdraw the team from the tournament.
« As Furkan Korkmaz was walking down the hall leading to the locker room with our coach, Georgia players who weren’t on the active roster attacked him along with the expelled player (Duda Sanadze, editor’s note) and the police. There should be no attack on the player going to the locker room. At the end of the game, 30 policemen pushed each of us into a fight. We had a fight with the official Georgia police. The player who was not playing, Shengelia, and three people sitting on the bench went to the locker room. At the end of the match, the police were in front of our locker room. Supposedly they were protecting us but they were pushing us all the time. I called FIBA and also told FIBA officials about it. Don’t let anyone be wrong or think we’re stupid. They will bring us all the camera footage of this hallway minute by minute without missing a thing. If these cameras do not come to us, we will leave this tournament, threatened the vice-president of the Federation Omer Onan. »
22 seconds forgotten?
To make matters worse, Turkey complained because during the altercation between Korkmaz and Sanadze on the floor, 22 seconds elapsed on the clock, when he should have been stopped, and given the very tight scenario of the meeting , this may have had an impact on the final score. FIBA has not yet ruled on these two cases. Meanwhile, Turkey are second in Group A, tied with Spain, Montenegro and Belgium, before facing Belgium on Tuesday. If she hasn’t left Georgia by then…