As the Euroleague season concludes, BasketNews Referee Consultant Todd Warnick examines how referee problems increased and were magnified during the 2024-25 season, and what might be done to improve officiating next year and in the years to come.
As the Euroleague season concludes, BasketNews Referee Consultant Todd Warnick examines how referee problems increased and were magnified during the 2024-25 season, and what might be done to improve officiating next year and in the years to come.
It's hardly a rosy or optimistic picture.
Where to for the Euroleague Referees?
It's challenging for many people to know where to begin when discussing Euroleague refereeing.
Clearly, while there will always be complaints, there is a growing sense that the Euroleague's officiating is deteriorating, if not rapidly.
When BasketNews launched the Give Me Control project during the 2023-24 season, it was with the intention of occasionally shedding professional light on various and sometimes controversial officiating situations that arose from time to time, in order to provide more substantive content for the vast European basketball audience.
However, as the 2024-25 season progressed, controversy started to come in waves.
Hardly a Euroleague round passed without at least one game or more being marred by significant complaints from teams, which demanded at least a review.
In a few cases, we found that the complaints were mostly not justified. However, on numerous occasions, we discovered significant referee errors that took place repeatedly.
For example, verticality plays, protecting shooters, charge-block situations, traveling situations, and even rule errors.
In some cases, we found that the officiating errors had a negative impact on the final score.
It's Mostly About Nominations
Referees' performance level on the court is also a combination of factors that occur off the court, including education, training, guidelines, and evaluation/coaching.
There is a growing opinion that various aspects in some of these areas have deteriorated in the past two years, which in turn affects the officials' performance on the court.
There is also growing frustration with the nominations process – and let's be aware that nominations, such as Euros and those for referees at this level, who are paid per game, have a very real financial aspect.
Here are the cold, hard facts.
