Croatia - Spain - a shame

We,the undersigned would like to protest against the shameful "performance" of the "referees" in the Eurobasket 2005 quarter-final game between Croatia and Spain and the treatment of Croatian players and supporters during the Eurobasket competition. We feel that the refereeing was unfair and that the winner was decided by the "referees" Lamonica(ITA),Drabikovsky(UKR)and Drabikovsky(UKR).



To support the above statement we would like to point out the following:



1) The Croatian team had 37 fouls at the end of the game, while the Spanish team had just 14 fouls.



2) The Spanish team had 47 free throws, compared to the 12 free throws which the Croatian team had.



3) The last point of the Spanish team 3 seconds from the end of the regular time (which was the equalising point and which led to overtime) was made after an evident offensive foul of Fran Vasquez ofer Marko Tomas. If the "referees" reacted regularly the Croatian team would have won the game in regular time.



4) In overtime,the "referees" have made a number of dubious decisions which all led to the Croatian players loosing their temper and finishing the game with 3 technical fouls (Marko Popovic was even excloded from the game).



All these points indoubtedly confirm that the Croatian team has been severely damaged by the "referees" because if the Croatian team won te game they would directly qualify for the World Championships in Japan and would play for the medals in this competition.



We would also like to protest against the behaviour of the organizers of the Eurobasket. It was evident that everything was put against the Croatian team and its supporters. They couldn't even cross the Serbian border. Furthermore,during the time-outs of the before mentioned quarter-final game between Croatia and Spain the crowd was encouraged to be on the Spanish side by playing Spanish music, by dressing the cheerleaders in Spanish outfits... And lastly, during the halftime of the game between Germany and Slovenia,a small show program was made with young players wearing the jerseys of the national teams. The only national team which didn't have its jersey in the show program was Croatia.



We are aware that you cannot repeat the game between Croatia and Spain nor put the Croatian team in the semi-finals so we requast that you SEND A WILDCARD FOR THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS IN JAPAN TO THE CROATIAN TEAM as a refund of everything that was stolen from us during this "championship".



We would also like to say that we are deeply disappointed by the orgnization of this Eurobasket and hope that next time it will be better.