FIBA Europe Secretary General Nar Zanolin came to the defence of the referees from last night´s quarter-final game between Spain and Croatia during a media round table session with journalists this morning at the Hyatt Hotel in Belgrade.

In Spain's dramatic 101-85 overtime win over Spain, Croatia were whistled for 37 fouls to Spain´s 14. Spain took advantage, making 38-of-49 attempts from the free throw line to Croatia´s eight-of-12, a decisive factor in the outcome of the game.

The final minute of the game turned ugly as Croatian head coach Neven Spahija drew a technical by crossing mid-court to argue and players shouted at officials from the bench. Guard Marko Popovic was ejected in the final seconds of the game.

The officials were the talk of the post game and many on the  Croatian side blamed the crew for the loss.

Zanolin, sitting with FIBA President George Vassilakopoulos, FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann and FIBA Secretary General Emeritus Borislav Stankovic, opened the round table session by immediately addressing the controversy.

“I resented the reactions of one team because they lost," said Zanolin. “There was no way Croatia was cheated out of the game."

Zanolin and other FIBA Europe officials were up until the early morning reviewing the tape of the the game, particularly focusing on the officials´ performance. They were able to evaluate the officials using a digitial score sheet, which provides analysis of all violations during the course of a game.

In reference to the disparity of fouls, he said: "the referees cannot invent fouls. Croatia were more physical and aggressive."

“Referees are not perfect, just like coaches are not perfect and players are not perfect. The officials had towels thrown at them, were insulted and spat at. Is that sportsmanship?”

The FIBA Europe Technical committee decided not to suspend any Croatian players for their actions from the previous night, but the case will reviewed by the FIBA Europe Judge.

The round table session also included an explanation from Baumann regarding the remaining wild-card openings for FIBA World Championship 2006.

Teams that do not finish in the top six of EuroBasket 2005 can still qualify for the four remaining slots for the world event. No more than three countries from one continent will be eligible to qualify, not necessarily meaning that three will come from Europe.

Eight to nine countries from around the world have already expressed their interest in the wild-card, including Canada, the Dominican Republic and Korea to go along with a number of European nations.