Boris Margeta (Kranj, Slovenia, 19 September 1972) is a Slovenian water polo referee, who is one of the most experienced European referees in water polo. 1st line; Boris Margeta (SLO); 2nd line; Georgios Stavridis (GRE) "On the other side is one of the doyens of world refereeing, Boris Margeta from Slovenia, who is officiating his sixth Olympic Games, joining the great and late Eugenio Martinez of Cuba." "At the heart of the project is Boris Margeta, a six-time Olympian referee and President of the World Water Polo Referees' Association, who has been instrumental in developing the course content." He has been the president of the World Water Polo Referees' Association (WWR) since 2018. "26 April 2018:Five-time Olympic referee Boris Margeta, the president of the World Water Polo Referees’ Association, spoke on the need of a ranking system" He has officiated water polo competitions at six Olympic Games.
Career In his first youth years, he started playing water polo for the Slovenian club Triglav. Later he quit and Matjaž Rakovec, a former international water polo referee and president of the Slovenian water polo referees' organisation, encouraged him into getting into water polo refereeing. pg. 28 He began refereeing in the 1990s.
He passed the Slovenian examination to become an international referee in 1997, and he eventually was invited then by FINA and officiated at his first Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000.
Margeta has officiated at six Summer Olympic Games. He was selected for the Summer Olympic Games of 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2024. In fact, he was additionally invited for the 2020 Summer Olympics, but due to a family matter, he did not take part.
Margeta has also officiated in several final games of the World Aquatics Championship, World Cup, World League, and also in European Champions League. "Editor’s Note: The two referees for the final are no strangers to this event — Boris Margeta (SLO) and Georgios Stavridis (GRE). The pair has officiated together on this match in 2015 Kazan and 2022 Budapest. Margeta also refereed the match in 2005 Montreal, 2009 Rome, 2013 Barcelona and 2019 Gwangju — a record total of six. He has also officiated the women’s final at Barcelona in 2003 and at Melbourne in 2007." "...nine World Championships, two World Cups and 15 European Champions League finals."
Refereeing lecturing Margeta has also worked in the education and training of new water polo referees by being an expert lecturer at the European Aquatics Water Polo Referees Schools "The expert lecturers consisted of six-time Olympic referee and President of the World Water Polo Referee Association Boris Margeta ..." and has contributed to develop the World Aquatics' education programme for water polo officials.
Controversial At the 2012 Olympics water polo tournament, in London, Margeta was involved in a highly controversial decision in the men's match between Spain and Croatia. He actually overruled a line judge, who had called as a goal a late Spanish attempt. Croatia won finally the match 8–7. Then, Spain appealed the incident to FINA, but the final match result was upheld. As an outcome, Margeta was then removed from the remaining officiating appointments of this tournament.
References
External links Boris Margeta at Olympedia