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Photo: BNS
BNS photo
The main theme of Thursday’s Euroleague remote conference will be playing postponed matches, rather than offering an alternative tournament format, as SDNA journalist Sotiris Vetakis previously wrote.
On Monday, there were reports that the Euroleague promises to offer alternatives to clubs, including dividing the season into two parts. 3-4 months would be reserved for the completion of the national championships, and the international tournaments would be completed during the remaining 3-4 months.
These speculations have been refuted by Eduard Scott, Euroleague’s director of basketball operations.
“Interviews with national championships are a normal practice in our activities and we believe that now is the right time to discuss the current situation. With all the speculation ahead, the goal of the next conference is to agree on how we will proceed in the coming months. There are no plans to introduce an alternative format to what has been speculated these days, ”Scott told eurohoops.net.
He also addressed the Euroleague leaders on Monday. Ettore Messina, strategist at AX Armani Exchange in Milan. Italy has proposed suspending the Euroleague for at least a few months.
“Dear basketball friends, after long deliberations I decided to send this message to those who will not waste 5 minutes of their time.
I was lucky enough to be successful enough to have a long career in international basketball. My teams have honorably participated in the tournaments organized by FIBA, Euroleague and ULEB.
Despite disagreements, I have always respected the vision and leadership of Mr. Stankovičius and Mr. Baumann, who left Anapilin. I am also proud to be an old friend of Mr Portela, Mr Bertomeu and the current president of ULEB Mr Van Den Spiegel.
We live in very difficult and demanding times. The governments of most European countries have decided to return the total or at least partial quarantine to protect the population from COVID-19. Every week we have more and more infected basketball players, coaches or club members.
More and more games are postponed. Soon we will not have free seats to play postponed games.
It seems that the only logical solution now is to suspend the European tournaments and allow the national championships to end the seasons in the next four months, as traveling between their own countries is much easier.
After that, all international tournaments can be completed in March or April. Hopefully this can be done before the start of the Tokyo Olympics, and perhaps by then the coronavirus will have stopped or completely overcome.
Of course, this situation will also need the support of the partners and sponsors of the television broadcast, but I believe that the communion created by our leaders will allow them to join us.
The health of the participants and the honesty of the tournament is a top priority and we, as fans, will be eternally grateful to our leaders for their decisions, ”Messina wrote in his letter.
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