“I think that, alongside the teams, refereeing also plays a very important role in raising the level of the league.”

According to Offsideplus.az, these remarks were made by Sabah head coach Rimas Kurtinaitis at the press conference following the match against Absheron Lions.

The specialist shared his thoughts on the game:

“We played well in some parts and poorly in others. This is related to fatigue. However, alongside this, the referees played a major role in the result recorded in today’s match. We compete against big teams in the Champions League. In the Azerbaijani championship, however, opponents play against us with high motivation. Naturally, every opponent we face wants to defeat us. There are some issues related to refereeing that cannot be ignored. First of all, despite the fact that one of the referees arrived late to the game, I agreed for the match to start at the previously scheduled time, but this point remains unclear to me.

It has already been several matches in which we have faced груbe mistakes and questionable decisions by the referees against us. When I stand up from my seat and want to ask the referee a question about a decision he made, I am given a technical foul. Whereas perhaps the referee did not hear the question fully and clearly. Moreover, I have been in basketball for many years and I know which words can be said to a referee and which cannot. Looking at some of their decisions, one might feel as if they are not present in the game.

Matches must be officiated objectively and neutrally. As a club, our goal is to contribute to the development of Azerbaijani basketball by producing high-quality work. I also returned to Azerbaijan again for this purpose. I believe that after this game, the federation must make serious decisions regarding refereeing so that such situations do not happen again.”

It should be noted that the match ended with a 101–97 victory for Absheron Lions.