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  • Gran Canaria. Step forward to welcome the outcome of the ACB

As in most areas, the situation of Spanish basketball, always so prone to instability, begins to be really worrying due to the coronavirus crisis that has stopped 'sine die' all competitions. The leagues try to find loopholes and set scenarios for a possible return to activity, but there are so many variations at stake that obviously it would not be easy, even if health security allowed it.

Alfonso Reyes , president of the players union (ABP), already recovered from COVID 19, spoke about all those dilemmas of the national basket this Thursday , even forcing him to enter a Madrid hospital, in a telematic meeting with various media. Its main and forceful conclusion is that "it is going to be difficult to resume it."

Because the players he represents - Rafa Jofresa , his vice president - was also at the meeting - it seems to them that "there would be a lot to discuss." For example, the possibility of studying Endesa League, already in talks with the Canary Islands Government, about ending the competition in a single venue, with a final phase in which several teams were present. Reyes has revealed that work is being done on "eight or 10 maximum", those who were called, although he sees it as "unfeasible".

First, because, as everything indicates, there would be insufficient guarantees of zero risk until a coronavirus vaccine is developed. "If the ACB and the clubs decide to resume the competition without there being guarantees for their health close to 100%, they will take action and denounce the clubs and the league. And we will support them," Reyes announced. There is also concern about "how and when that lap would be." "You can't keep the players focused for a month," he protested. Neither does it seem that the readaptation deadlines are going to be met, the preseason that they should carry out, since "they would need 20 or 30 days."

No drops

Another problem would be the contractual issue, because many of the commitments expire on June 30 . Also the departure of foreign players, something that has already happened in several clubs, to their countries of origin.

Reyes announced that in the Assembly that the ACB clubs will carry out on April 20 there will not yet be a cancellation of the season, although he anticipated that "there will be no decreases". "We can find an ACB with 20 teams next season," he anticipated, on the alleged promotion of two teams from the LEB Gold. "What we do not know if there will be a champion," he added.

Although Alfonso Reyes spoke of the fluid conversations that all basketball players are having, the union president had much harsher words against the management of the Higher Sports Council, which "is neither expected nor expected." The ABP has not been included in the Sport Promotion Task Group , the body that the CSD has launched to tackle the crisis created by the pandemic. "They are not going to get wet and this is the sad thing. They have come to tell us that everyone should look for the beans. We demand that they make decisions," he demanded of the government body. "That they take into account the athletes," asked Rafa Jofresa.

Reyes revealed that they have requested an audience on several occasions with Irene Lozano , but that they have not yet received them, something that "says a lot" about the Secretary of State for Sport. "We want them to show us the way, which is what authority is for. It would be very helpful," concluded the ABP president.

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