The sports palace "Asllan Rusi" turned into an arena of fights between the players of both teams immediately after the end of the meeting, while others entered from outside, escalating the clash even more.
After this event, the newspaper "Panorama Sport" contacted the director of Tirana, Deborah Keçi, who was also present in the hall during this incident.
In her statement, Deborah condemns the violence, while denying that there was provocative or racist behavior from the white and blue team. She says that the main people responsible for the incident are the American players of Partizan, for whom she says that all the time they provoked with words and gestures.
Not only that, but the white and blue director appeals to the AFC to conduct drug tests, as the behavior of the Partizan players on the floor was not normal according to her.
Deborah, what is your comment as the director of the Tirana Club on the scenes of violence in the women's basketball derby?
If I had not been present myself in that situation and watched it closely, then I would not have spoken or reacted. I was in the hall and I watched both matches, including the first semi-final on our field, as well as the second. Now, at the moment the players of Partizan, who I don't know if they are inflated or taught by someone, because I don't believe that they come across the ocean and have this kind of hatred towards the players of Tirana. I don't want to hint, but all the time in the match, they made unsportsmanlike gestures towards our players, they made gestures towards the bench as well as towards the fans. So it's something that started in the first semi-final. The Partizan players were talking and throwing words at the coach and our girls on the field and on the bench. But even though such a situation, at no time was a warning given by the referees for these actions. The player was dribbling, while this slapped her hands in the face. All these repeated gestures by them have accumulated, that is, they have gathered and it is not that it was an explosion of the moment.
So according to you, everything came from the provocative behavior of the American players of Partizan?
Yes, since the first match that took place in "Farie Hoti". I was there myself and I was meeting the coach of my team, while one of those girls insulted us "bye bye, f*ck off". So something completely unrelated, since no one was provoking them. In the entire history, during these three years that I have been in charge of Tirana, there has been no chance for such degradations to happen, nor even the slightest quarrel provoked by our athletes. First of all, we have good citizens in the club and then good athletes. Our philosophy is to bring good, educated citizens and then good athletes. This is a main principle that I have in the club. I can never take players who are provocative, unethical and do not know the rules.