The German national basketball team won the final of the World Cup in Manila against Serbia with 83:77. While the historic coup is being celebrated in Germany, the Serbian media is criticizing the referees with sometimes drastic words.
“Serbia was brutally cheated in the final,” rumbled the Kurir. “You are heroes and we are proud of you. It is shameful that the referees decided who should be world champion in the end,” added the Belgrade daily newspaper.
Another newspaper in the Balkan state also sharply criticized the performance of the referee trio consisting of Roberto Vazquez (Puerto Rico), Omar Bermudez (Mexico) and Gatis Salins (Latvia). In the third and fourth quarters in particular, the referees made several controversial decisions in favor of the DBB team.
Basketball World Cup: Serbia outraged by “brutal fraud”.
The “Telegraph” accused the referees of having “stolen gold” from the Serbs: “The players were outraged by this brutal cheating and made mistakes in the crucial moments,” said the Serbian internet media.
“These are the people who belittled Serbia: a trio of referees who shouldn’t have even been allowed to referee a basketball game in anyone’s backyard, let alone a World Cup final,” wrote the Serbian daily newspaper Blic. The referees’ decisions led to Germany gaining a point lead that “was almost impossible to catch up with.”
Gordon Herbert’s team went into the final quarter with a twelve point lead. Serbia coach Svetislav Pesic, however, wanted nothing to do with the heavy criticism of the referees and congratulated the German team.
“They had a great tournament and played against us with more physicality. We couldn’t keep up. That’s basketball. Someone has to go home with silver, someone with gold. For me, silver is what shines,” he said the fair loser.