Turkey had already railed against the organization of Georgia, the playing conditions of Group A in Tbilisi being in some ways problematic, but it was a much more serious incident that happened today, during the meeting between the Georgia and Turkey.
While he was expelled, Furkan Korkmaz was attacked as he joined the locker room, Turkey even accusing the Georgian police of being involved…
“As Furkan Korkmaz was walking down the locker room corridor with our coach, Georgian players who weren’t on the team sheet attacked him, together with the expelled player (Duda Sanadze) and the police” assures Omer Onan, vice-president of the Turkish federation. “There shouldn’t be an attack on a player who goes to the locker room. At the end of the game, 30 policemen also pushed us into a fight. We fought with the official Georgia police. I appeal to FIBA and I also told FIBA officials. Let no one take us for idiots. They will bring us all the footage from the cameras in this hallway, minute by minute, with nothing missing. If these images do not reach us, we will leave this tournament. “
Omer Onan accuses Tornike Shengelia and three other non-active Georgian players of leaving the bench to attack Furkan Korkmaz in the locker room, the police not intervening to stop the fight, but on the contrary attacking the Turkish delegation.
“Today the Georgian players and some security guards in the hallway were disrespectful to us. We came here to play basketball, not for anything else” confirmed Hakan Demir, the assistant who led Turkey after the expulsion of Ergin Ataman. “It should stay on the pitch, but unfortunately a huge scandal took place off the pitch. Such things are not in the spirit of sport. A basketball game was supposed to be played today, but unfortunately what happened went beyond basketball. We still have two games left in Georgia and unfortunately what happened in the halls today is against the spirit of the sport. “
Beaten in these stormy conditions (88-83), Turkey also filed a complaint with FIBA, explaining that the match had been completely cut off by 22 seconds by the scorer’s table…
