A referee will not be in action for the rest of the season after he was found to have committed a ‘major mistake’ in a Division I National Basketball League match between Eng Tat Hornets and Siglap Basketball Club held at the Singapore Basketball Centre on Sept 11.
The Basketball Association of Singapore posted the following statement on their Facebook page on Sunday evening after evaluating the incident.
“The Referee Supervisory Team has reviewed Game 28 between Eng Tat Hornets and Siglap Basketball Club. The Q4:0.17:6 foul call on Eng Tat Hornets number 18 was a major mistake by the game official #31,” read the posting.
“The mistake had impacted the outcome of the match. After serious consideration, the Referee Supervisory Team has decided to remove game official #31 from the remaining matches of the NBL Div I, 2022.”
The match was tied at 54-54, and deep in the final quarter when the referee made the erroneous call against the Hornets. With that, Siglap was awarded a free throw, and they took advantage of it to make the score 56-54 in their favour and went on to win the match.
Although the loss was Eng Tat’s first of the season, they remain top of the table on eleven points, while Siglap is in the fourth spot on ten points.
The incident also attracted attention from former national basketball player Lim Shengyu who commented, “Any possibility to void the game? Or rematch?”
“Rematch is the same with disregard to all the efforts that were put up to that second, void the game is even worse, it’s not fair for both,” replied Santo Thie to Lim’s comment.
While the referee is suspended for his actions, some did not agree with it and feel that it might be better if a different approach is taken.
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