Olympic Referee Confirms Team USA Beat Serbia Due To Corruption

Team USA’s come-from-behind victory over Serbia earlier this week was shrouded in a lot of controversy.

Various players on the Serbian side blatantly accused the referees of corruption.

Then Serbia’s head coach, Svetislav Pesic, tried to more diplomatically say what his players had been saying by suggesting that the referees showed a lack of respect towards his players.

This week former Olympic referee Todd Warnick weighed in on the topic and seemed to confirm that the referees in the Serbia game favored the Americans and were biased against the other side.

“Referees, they can’t be starstruck by who is playing the Game,” he said.

In a new Give Me Control episode, former referee and current referee coach Todd Warnick breaks down the officiating in the USA vs. Serbia Game 👀 pic.twitter.com/nbN3horFfh

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“If they foul, the foul. And if they score, they score, and if they don’t foul, they don’t foul. This is sort of a fundamental error that you don’t want to see referees make. They (Serbia) could have benefitted from some more correct decisions in the fourth quarter by the referees.”

This is obviously pretty damning stuff, but also a bit unsurprising given how this year’s Olympics have gone. Earlier in the tournament the French side received pretty egregiously blatant assistance from the referees.

Then South Sudan came out and openly accused the officials of being biased against them.

Now this.

This year’s games are essentially done, but the hope among all at this point is that the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles ultimately find a way to not have the same corruption issues plague them.

Carlos Garcia

A longtime Sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB Games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.