Costas Rigas: Appointed officials known ahead of time only in Moscow and Tel Aviv

PBC CSKA was visited by the head of the Euroleague officiating committee Costas Rigas. Over the course of the day, Rigas will visit the sights in Moscow and meet with PBC CSKA general director Sergey Kushchenko. Tomorrow he will attend the CSKA vs Virtus game.

Immediately after Rigas' arrival gave an interview to our web site:

Is this your first visit to Russia?
"My first time travelling abroad was in 1978 when I visited the U.S.S.R. I was in Brest. And as an official I came to Russia only one time, 12 years ago. FIBA never apointed me again. Probably because of the long distance from Greece. As the head of the officiating committee I would have visited Russia a long time ago, as soon as CSKA and Ural Great came in to the league. But at the beginning of last season I was extremely busy, and I decided to postpone my trip until winter. A specific game was even chosen for winter: CSKA vs Tau. I applied for a visa, bought a ticket, but once again fate stepped in the way. Euroleague president Jordi Bertomeau was supposed to be at the game to give Mirsad Turkcan the MVP award. And we decided that only one of us should travel to Moscow."

In general, do you visit a lot of different clubs?
"Yes. CSKA was the last one I hadn't been to."

As far as I understand, one of your responsibilities is to watch as many tapes of Euroleague games as possible.
"As a rule, I watch about 8-9 games from each round. That's quite enough."

How many CSKA games have you watched this year?
"Quite a few. I saw the games against Real, Olympiakos, Partizan, and some of the early ones which, to be honest, I don't remember. You have a very good team this year."

What did you think of the officiating in the CSKA - Olympiakos game in Athens?
"I already expressed my opinion at the seminar in London, and I wouldn't like to advertise my statements widely."

You are meeting with CSKA general director Sergey Kushchenko today. What do you plan to talk about?
"In general, I don't have any fixed plan for the meeting. We will try to talk about as many different things as we can. Often in talks like this different discussions just come up which then help to make the Euroleague better and more interesting for fans."

How does working with Euroleague officials differ from with FIBA officials?
"There are big differences. In the Euroleague decisions are made according to the wishes and interests of the clubs, and that is important. Regarding the officials, the difference is that now the teams don't handle their accommodations and don't have the right to give them presents (earlier this practice was quite widespread). True, we had to make two exceptions for Russian and Israel. CSKA and Maccabi have to help the officials, and for this reason they know who the officials are ahead of time. In Russia this is in connection with visa problems, and in Israel it is due to safety concerns. But was ask the teams not to give any information to the press about who the officials will be.
Furthermore, we work a lot closer with the officials in the Euroleague. They have the opportunity to talk to me and with one another via our web site, to find out the latest news, and so on. Next season we intend to go even further. Opinions about the officiating in every single game will be given via email with in one day after the completion of the game. We won't need a lot to do this. There are eight observers (Russia's observer is the famous official Mikhail Davydov) who help to judge the officials' work in Euroleague games, plus there is the possibility of watching game films. And reading reports. It won't take a lot of time to get all of this together."

How do you usually choose an official for one game or another?
"There are many criteria. And that is a big part of my job. But I think that it's a much more interesting group of officials in the Euroleague. Under my management we now have 97 officials. That is a lot"

Are you planning to change at all the officiating before the beginning of the second stage of the Euroleague?
"We have chosen the 40 best officials. They, the true best of the best, will officiate the TOP 16 games."

Do you plan to publish the list?
"No. Above all because it may cause misunderstandings and disharmony among the officials, and we don't want that. One of my concepts of my work is that the Euroleague officials should be one big family."

And beginning next season will there be any major changes in the work of the Euroleague officials since last year?
"That depends on whether a contract is signed between FIBA and ULEB. If that happens, then on what terms? That is what will determine how things will look for the 2003-04 season."