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Ettore Messina, coach of the AX Armani team in Milan, has publicly circulated a categorical idea of how European basketball should continue to develop.
According to him, the Euroleague and other European tournaments should be suspended for about four months, during which the clubs would play local championships, returning to the international arenas in April.
Still, the Krepsinis.net portal highlights several reasons why such an idea would be absolutely unjustified and useless for leagues and clubs.
In particular, Messina notes in his message that traveling alone within his own country would be easier at the moment, and in April the coronavirus could be controlled or completely overcome. Still, such statements are questionable.
Until now, no team in the international arena has had more trouble going to other countries: if possible, they fly on scheduled flights, if not on charter flights. Currently, the situation is completely different from that of the spring: the flights are carried out, perhaps a little complicated, but the planes fly through Europe regularly.
The only question was about the Piraeus Olympiacos and Tel Aviv Maccabi match, but then the attack at the Athens airport, not the COVID-19, could have caused the problems. All other trips went smoothly.
For comparison, we can give an example of a trip to Krasnodar’s Lokomotiv-Kuban, which did not travel to the European Cup, but to the United League match, and the route looked like this: from Krasnodar to Moscow, where you were waiting to spend the night. Then a flight to Istanbul, then to Berlin, and from there – 3-4 hours by bus to Zielona Gora. As a result, the club had no complaints and it is unlikely that many Euroleague teams will have more difficult courses during the season, so the travel factor can be ruled out.
Another thing, E. Messina’s consideration that the coronavirus will be controlled or overcome in April is based on a more naive optimism. At the moment, it is very difficult to predict the situation in Europe in a week. Both quarantine and the vaccine can control the situation. It is not known how all countries will deal with the problems of quarantine, as it is financially painful and if it will work in the long term, while waiting for the vaccine to replace everything is also very optimistic, as experts say it will be a pleasure if is widely used. starting next summer or fall.
The fact is that in 4 months the virus will not disappear and it would be strange to expect that the clubs are protected from possible infections in March or April. On the contrary, if the calendar had to be adjusted when clubs play intensely in the Euroleague, the European Cup and travel a lot, any change and flexion would become much more complicated than now, when it is possible to look for single weeks or free “windows” .
The resumption of the Euroleague season is unlikely to make travel easier as it would be much more intense, putting additional fatigue on the players.
Also strange is the view that international tournaments are eradicated by coronavirus diseases, and here local infections would be less important. There is no doubt that there will be more illnesses in more than one league and team, so we will have to rush the schedules more than once. Teams heavily affected by the coronavirus, such as the same Zenit in St. Petersburg or the ASVEL in Vilerban, should also feel strange, and will be calm about the development of the disease so far in the coming months due to the immunity developed.
When Vilerban’s team is mentioned, another fact needs to be mentioned. France itself has been plunged into a strict quarantine and basketball leagues have also been affected, as fans are unable to enter stadiums and broadcasting matches only on online platforms does not satisfy all clubs and their sponsors. The French Premier League may be suspended for a month or more; Until now there is uncertainty, even the players do not know if they will have the right conditions for the sport.
So what if clubs ran out of both local and international tournaments, especially if they had just recovered from the virus and were returning to sports? And you can find more leagues that are short-lived. Talking about taking care of the health of the players, as mentioned by the AX Armani coach, is strange, because it would be that the health of the basketball players who have already contracted is not important, while those who could be infected in the future would begin to protect themselves against it .
You can also take the example of Olympiacos from Piraeus, who compete exclusively in the Euroleague. According to the idea of E. Messina, he should be without normal basketball for 4 months or play friendly matches, which would mean that the team would not return to the Euroleague in April in the best conditions.
Even other Euroleague or European Cup teams, which compete only in local leagues, would lose some of their pace at the top tier if they had to compete only with much weaker opponents.
The FIBA Champions League was also mentioned in the information: it could adapt to this format, but FIBA proved to be smarter and changed plans before the season, reduced the number of teams in groups and such changes are absolutely irrelevant for her, since only six games are played in the regular season. Even if a team falls out of the lineup due to a coronavirus, the chances of having to adjust the schedule are small – the intervals between matches are solid.
As for Vilnius “Rytas”, he played the first match on October 27, the next one will be played on November 10, later on December 8 and 23, and in January – on December 12 and 26. Even if you are infected, you will be able to recover successfully in that period of time. So FIBA wouldn’t even want to participate in discussions on such a scenario.
An important moment is the sponsors. It’s cheap to talk to the AX Armani coach, when the club has the wealthy Giorgio Armani behind it, but other teams, especially those with smaller budgets, without government support or gas concerns, shouldn’t be satisfied with such either. offer.
“Support from broadcast partners and sponsors should be expected,” says Messina, forgetting that support is supportive, but finances remain financial and do not fall from the sky.
Most sponsors, to put it mildly, would not like their name to be positioned only on the local front for the next 4 months and published on a European scale only in April. In this case, there may be people who want to reduce support, because the circumstances of advertising have changed significantly. And if that happened, the clubs would have to resort to paying their salaries.
Another important fact is the attention that the Euroleague would receive if it were developed in a more or less usual format, but played urgently in 2-3 months in spring. It has already been seen that the National Basketball Association (NBA) battles were seen significantly less last season, so it is possible that European basketball also faces problems and the broadcasts do not receive as much attention.
So far, 9 matches in the Euroleague have been postponed for the future. Not a little, but not a lot, tragically. The current changes allow you to adjust the match date multiple times, so it will definitely be possible to target individual weeks and other dates when it is possible to play lost matches.
Meanwhile, E. Messina’s idea would probably not change the situation in a good direction. A stage without matches or with weak opponents, followed by an intense flying marathon and sponsorship claims, is what European teams would expect. It should be agreed that the coronavirus will not disappear in 4 months and that the Euroleague teams will not be protected in any way so that the COVID-19 calendar will not balance in the spring.
And already at that time there will be no time to make significant adjustments: summer will be in the nose, the national team and the Olympics, which, according to reports, will take place in any conditions. And before the Olympics, and their selection, which will begin at the end of June.
More flexibility and negotiation with local leagues may be necessary, but the Euroleague is already talking to league leaders, so schedules will be adjusted to make room for rescheduled meetings. In any case, European basketball must live in the conditions in which all Europeans now live.
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