The Russian VIP fan that interfered with the game and harassed a Fenerbahçe player at Sunday's Turkish Airlines Euroleague final game against CSKA Moscow turned out to be a renowned business figure.
Turkish media outlets reported that the fan that greatly angered Turkish fans with his provocative move was Dmitriy Vladimirovich Konov, who runs one of the largest gas processing and petrochemicals company in Russia, Sibur.
The 45-year-old CEO is known as a basketball super fan and CSKA Moscow supporter who frequently attends CSKA's games and finals along with his 33-year-old former Playboy model wife Katarina Konks, who chooses to wear a glittery dress in the colors of the Russian flag: white, red and blue in the finals.
In the third minute of the third quarter of the final game, Fenerbahçe's Serbian player Nikola Kalinic was fouled by Andrey Vorontsevich during a fast break. The referee whistled a foul, and as Kalinic was running past the front row, Konov got up from his seat and pushed Kalinic towards the court.
Konov's move greatly angered Turkish fans who were watching the game both inside Berlin's Mercedes-Benz Arena and on TV. Fenerbahçe executives, headed by Chairman Aziz Yıldırım, also stepped into the court and demanded that Konov be expelled from the game. However, referees did not follow the normal procedure and instead allowed Konov to remain in his seat, a decision also receiving heavy criticism both during and after the game.
The match's Croatian referee Damir Javor was also the target of heavy criticism by Fenerbahçe Coach Zeljko Obradovic for turning a blind eye to CSKA players' travelling fouls when they scored the equalizer that brought the score to 83-83 with only 1.9 seconds left to the final whistle. CSKA Moscow won the title 101-96 in extra time.
Sibur, which Konov runs since 2006, is a subsidiary of Russia's state-owned gas and oil giant Gazprom.
