Final Eight referees announced

The names of the 12 referees who will work the 2009 Eurocup Final Eight in Torino, Italy have been announced by the organization. The full list of referees includes: Panagiotis Anastopoulos (Greece), Romualdas Brazauskas (Lithuania), Guerrino Cerebuch (Italy), David Chambon (France), Roberto Chiari (Italy), Antonio Conde (Spain), Spiros Gkontas (Greece), Olegs Latisevs (Latvia), Sasa Maricic (Serbia), Jose Martin (Spain), Robert Vyklicky (Czech Republic) and Grzegorz Ziemblicki (Poland). Brazauskas and Gkontas were officiating games at the Euroleague Final Four in Madrid last year. Gkontas previously worked the first leg of the 2003 final in which Pamesa Valencia lifted the first-ever ULEB Cup trophy, while Chambon officiated the 2007 final in which Real Madrid downed Lietuvos Rytas. Since the Euroleague started in 2000, Brazauskas has taken part in five Final Fours from 2002 to 2008. Martin also officiated the 2003 Euroleague Final Four. Meanwhile, Martin worked the 2005 ULEB Cup final in which Lietuvos Rytas downed Makedonikos. Anastopoulos, Cerebuch, Chiari, Conde, Olegs Latisevs, Sasa Maricic, Vyklicky and Ziemblicki have never refereed in either the Euroleague Final Four or the ULEB Cup Final. As always, by assigning newcomers to the Final Eight officiating crew, the ULEB Cup aims both to diversify the pool of referees with experience in Europe's top basketball event and reward professional competency. The Final Eight is to be held from Thursday, April 2 to Sunday, April 5 at the Palasport Olimpico Isozaki in Turin, Italy and features the following teams: Dynamo Moscow, Hemofarm Stada, Benetton Basket Tamoil, Lietuvos Rytas, Pamesa Valencia, BC Khimki Moscow Region, iurbentia Bilbao Basket and KK Zadar.