On Wednesday during game 2 of the Serie C playoff semi-final between Melfa’s Gela Basket and Catanzaro, it wasn’t the athletes on the pitch who took the spotlight, who for three quarters of the match offered a superior category show to those present at Palalivatino.
Unfortunately, the referees Alvin Perrone of Catania and Damiano Cavallaro of Zafferana Etnea, who at 6:14 from the end of the match, with a score of 54-59 for Catanzaro, decided to suspend the match due to a small invasion, committed by one of Gela’s athletes after a bad foul against Emanuele Caiola, who fell disastrously to the ground from basket height, and for alleged threats received from the public present – without any previous warning – also animated by a rude gesture from the Serbian Sipovac towards the Gelese bench.
«The situation that arose at Palalivatino – says vice-president Fabio Cipolla bitterly – can be traced back to the attitude of the player from Catanzaro Sipovac, who on several occasions was the protagonist of unpleasant behavior towards our bench, before the foul damages by Emanuele Caiola.
In this circumstance, the referees would have immediately stopped the match, as it was a fall with the head and therefore according to protocol all the necessary investigations should have started immediately. I partially justify the father’s reaction because anyone would worry about a child.
The referee Perrone confirmed his reluctance towards us, as has already happened on other occasions. The problem – he continues – also lies in the fact that it was a table judge who asked for the suspension, without any warning, and not the match directors themselves.
Furthermore, on the occasion of Catanzaro-Giarre, a fan of the home team threw a punch at a guest player and in that case the match was not stopped; therefore, two weights and two measures were used. We are disappointed because we wanted the final verdict from the pitch and not end the season in this way. Obviously, we also make amends for our mistakes, but we did not deserve this treatment.”
A bad page of sport, without a shadow of a doubt, but a match management that needs to be reviewed, which penalizes Gela excessively and unfairly, thus conditioning the outcome of a season, which however sees Totò Bernardo’s team emerge with their heads held high, having held head to an opponent with important ambitions since the beginning of the year. We will need to start again from those 34.26 minutes played, for a certainly rosy future, referees permitting.
