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"I have not seen an euphoric costume; I have seen it rather tired tonight. Understandably, because we have had to make two tremendous efforts in the last three days and then travel and the accumulation of days and parties and tension " , he began this Monday night, at his hotel in Shanghai, his speech of Scariolo room preview. Exhaustion is the word of the World Cup and examples are handfuls.

Last Friday, after his match against Puerto Rico, a local journalist asked Sasha Djordjevic in the press room why he had not trained his team the day before, upon arrival in Wuhan. The Serbian coach broke out: "We finished our game last night, we returned to the hotel. In the morning we got up early to go to the airport, travel [from Foshan to Wuhan], two hours of flight, one more on the road to the hotel, with all the bags. .. I would be crazy if I also had to have my players trained. "

And when they arrived at the Peninsula Hotel, the enormous complex located in the no less giant Wuhan (12 million inhabitants), the chaos, because the rooms were not ready and the bureaucracy, the unbearable Chinese bureaucracy, did not speed up. The organization did not even strive to solve the mess, which also suffered Italy, Spain and Puerto Rico as they arrived. The low level of English of volunteers is another barrier. And the players, with such bad fleas that even Jokic shoved away a Chinese fan in search of an autograph . Because the next day, I had left. After more than a week of tournament, the conclusion between players, technical staffs and journalists (there are hardly any locals and very few), is that China has ridden an absolutely chaotic World Cup.

"Think about the product"

Another example is now, in the passage of the second phase to the quarterfinals. The teams have to move again to play just one game. And until night they do not know the specific destination. There they will play the next day. And the next, new process, this time to Beijing, where the semifinals and the final are played . Of course, if they fall in quarters, they must postpone that flight, because the first match for fifth place remains where they are. Exhausting just think about it.

Djordjevic himself, in an interview in Cuatro, insisted on the complexity of logistics, with irrefutable arguments: " I see a problem in travel . Another, another, another ... That for players is not easy, to recover energy "FIBA and the organization should think about the product, what they are going to put on the court. The quality of the game has to be made by the best players in the best conditions. Only then will we have unforgettable games"

The root of the problem is in the expansion to 32 selections for the present World Cup, when they were previously 24. Something that, in addition, causes to lose competitiveness and that improper beating is seen (it already happened with the last Eurobasket to 24 teams). United at the distances of a giant like China. And the bureaucracy. And the traffic jams. For any selection, unless it is eliminated in this second phase and returns home, there will be eight games in 16 days and in four different destinations (there are up to eight locations in total). The case of Spain, already traveled 1,000 kilometers between Guangzhou and Wuhan (plus almost 1,500 from Ningbó, where he played a previous tournament), plus 900 on Monday to Shanghai. He planned a flight so early that the players, exhausted after the strike against Serbia, had to get up at five in the morning. Finally the Federation itself bought tickets to the players in a later one so that they could rest. "This does not stop, they are trips, especially charges to players who are 34 years old like me. The championship is tough , but there is no excuse," Rudy said Sunday.

The displacement to Dongguan would have been even worse. Now, if Spain advances to the semifinals, another 1,200 will have to be added to Beijing, the third flight of the tournament without counting the round trip (nor those of the preparation, where he visited California). To all the mileage and discomforts (road trips between the cities themselves are usually more than an hour), we must add problems with communications and internet access.

And not to mention the referees .

On Monday, two of the three braids of the disastrous match against Italy returned to Spain. Then they bit their tongues, players and coaches. This time it was Jokic who lost his nerve. Other teams have also gone into anger. Most flagrant was the mistake in the final and decisive of Lithuania - France, where the referees granted an illegal action by Gobert , who touched the net and the hoop to interrupt the trajectory of a Valanciunas free kick. The FIBA ​​issued a statement a posteriori acknowledging the error and expelling the three referees of the tournament, including the Spanish Count. Of course, Lithuania remained eliminated.

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