Stelios Koukoulekidis - the man behind the referees

In the last few years there’s one person, behind the scenes, who is doing a very important job – Stelios Koukoulekidis, one of the top basketball referees ever, is the one who supports, educates and evaluates the referees in Delasport BIBL.

He is the right hand of the Sport Director Shay Shtriks and they are working together, as a team, in the last few years controlling and observing the officiating in the Balkan League.

Most of the games in the last few seasons were observed by Stelios Koukoulekidis. After the matches his task is to send his comments to the referees and it was proved that during the years, thanks to his hard work, most of the referees provided better officiating in the games in Delasport Balkan League.



Stelios started his officiating carrier in 1976 and became FIBA referee in 1992. He had one of the most respectable officiating careers in Greece and Europe. He officiated in a total of 345 games in Greece, including 19 League and Cup finals. He also had a total of 110 FIBA international competitions games, including the Olympics in 1996 where he was a part of the crew for the semifinal between USA and Australia. Stelios Koukoulekidis was part of the referees in the first years of the Euroleague and had a total of 160 games in the competition, including 5 finals, while in the meantime officiation 30 matches in ULEB Cup and one final.He has also officiated 5 matche in the first season of the Balkan League and has others in Adriatic and the Lebanese leagues.

Following his retirement as a referee, Koukoulekidis started working as nomination and education coordinator in Greece, as a Euroleague and Balkan League games observer and was also Lebanese league technical instructor – coordinator between 2014 and 2017.

In the кзcoming season of Delasport Balkan League, which will start on Tuesday 12.10.2021, Stelios Koukoulekidis will continue his work as the official referee’s instructor of the competition with the support of Mr. Aleksandar Milojevic and the Sports Director Mr. Shay Shtriks. They will continue to observe the officiating to support and educate the referees. As a result of this very important task of Stelios Koukoulekids, the clubs in BIBL will continue to have the most correct and professional officiating during the season.

As we, in BIBL, are saying already 13 seasons, and now in the 14th as well, MAY THE BEST TEAM TO WIN!