Turkish, Georgian foreign ministers talk alleged brawl at Türkiye-Georgia basketball match

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Georgian counterpart Ilia Darchiashvili discussed the basketball match between the two national teams last weekend, said Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.

On the phone, Cavusoglu and Darchiashvili talked about the Türkiye-Georgia EuroBasket 2022 group match and the events following.

The statement gave no further detail about the phone conversation between the two officials.

Near the end of the Sept. 4 game, Türkiye's Furkan Korkmaz was disqualified for arguing, and on the way to the locker room, Korkmaz and other Turkish players were attacked by some Georgian players and police, according to Turkish side claims.

General Coordinator of the Turkish Basketball Federation, Omer Onan, called on FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, to produce all the "minute by minute" footage from the corridors around the Türkiye-Georgia 2022 EuroBasket Group A match played in Tbilisi, or the Turkish team will "leave the tournament."

FIBA issued a statement late Tuesday, regarding FIBA EuroBasket 2022 game between Türkiye and Georgia, from their official website.

Following the game's conclusion, the Turkish Basketball Federation (TBF) submitted a protest regarding a timekeeping operations error (the game clock ran for 22 seconds while the game was stopped), the statement wrote.

After reviewing all material and evidence submitted, the Single Judge of the FIBA EuroBasket Disciplinary Panel dismissed TBF's protest, objecting to the result of the game.

The statement added that while indeed there was a timekeeping operations error during the 4th quarter of the game, the TBF failed to establish in their protest, as per the Official Basketball Rules, that had it not been for the timekeeping operations error, a different result would have certainly materialized.

FIBA also added that an investigation is currently ongoing regarding the allegations from both federations in relation to actions in the team areas of the venue, involving players and delegation members from both teams.