Statement of Danish handball referee Lars Ejby Pedersen cast a vast stain on the World Handball Championshop, which was the best organised championship in history, according to president of the International Handball Federation Hassan Moustafa. Pedersen said that prostitutes were present at a dinner organised by the hosts, which he understood as indirect bribe.

- It was clear that they were prostitutes – Pedersen said, adding that such a thing was only possible in the Balkans.

We had the referees over for dinner. They had their dinner here and listened to the tamburitza players for half an hour, after which they all went home together. There were no prostitutes.

Dalija Pazic of Kezele

Accusations of the referee who served during the final match of the World Handball Championship match between Croatia and France, together with countrymen Olsen, caused severe reactions of the Croatian Handball Association.

- All members of the International Organisation of Referees were at the mentioned dinner Olsen and Pedersen refer to, like all referees of the World Championship. If they had noticed any immoral activities, we believe they would have reported them straight away, and not had amnesia until today. The Danish pair of referees has clearly become nervous, because the plot with immoral activities of individual referees has started to thicken. After this, we have a report of the mentioned “gentlemen” to the IHF and EHF court of honour, with the desire for such persons to be removed from handball arenas, seeing how they inflict immeasurable damage to handball, as well as sports in general – the press release of the Croatian Handball Association reads.

Executive vice president of the Croatian Handball Association Zoran Gobac finds the whole matter ridiculous and he is surprised with the fact that the referees chose to report the case now, as nearly two months have passed.

Referees Milosevic and Gubica did not see any prostitutes

Two referees from Osijek were also present at the dinner, Boris Milosevic and Matija Gubica. They do not understand where Pedersen got the idea.

- There wasn`t anything like this at the dinner. This was actually not a dinner, but a banquet and perhaps Pedersen had a private dinner and this is where it happened. However, this did not happen at the dinners organised by the host. We don`t know what`s inside his head – Milosevic and Gubica explained, whose claims were confirmed by Boris Zubovic, president of the Association of Croatian Handball Referees.

Various dinners and banquets were organised at the Lido restaurant and the Kezele family estate. Staff of the Lido restaurant said that they did not organise any dinners.

-  We had the referees over for dinner. They had their dinner here and listened to the tamburitza players for half an hour, after which they all went home together. There were no prostitutes - Dalija Pazic of Kezele

Nobody has seen the prostitutes which Pedersen mentioned. The question is which places Pedersen`s movements included, because there were no prostitutes at the official dinners organised by the hosts.

Mud-slinging at the World Handball championship is connected with the analysis of the referees` decisions during the final match of the World Handball Championship when the referees have made many bad calls which harmed Croatia, as the first analysis showed. Gobac believes that Pedersen and Olsen should deal with the results of the analysis, seeing how they will have to explain why they made such calls and on whose orders.

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