Interview.Jordi Bertomeu, president of the Euroleague: "" This Euroleague is going to be a puzzle "
In an interview for this newspaper just fifteen days ago,
Jordi Bertomeu
assured that "this
Euroleague is going to be a puzzle
".
And perhaps, in the head of the president of the highest continental basketball competition there was already a situation as uncontrolled as the current one.
"We are going to see things that we have never seen," he warned.
Said and done.
There are
19 positives at Zenit,
five at Khimki, eleven at Asvel Villeurbanne
... Interestingly, teams from Russia and France, two countries that have allowed massive crowds in their pavilions in recent weeks.
The Euroleague teams voted before the start of the season on the solution to this type of problem: if a club cannot register eight players for a match, for whatever reason, it
will lose 20-0
.
If your match has to be
postponed up to three times
due to infections in your squad, a loss will also be imposed by that same scoreboard.
No mercy, you might think.
And
what there is not is time
.
With a tighter schedule than ever, with
domestic and continental leagues, FIBA windows and the unforgiving and immovable horizon of the Tokyo Olympics
, European basketball cannot stop.
Bertomeu and his clubs have set the deadline for finishing the regular Euroleague league on April 13 and the playoffs on May 5.
There is no pause.
Due to that need to play, play and play and add days no matter what happens, we attended this week the surreal fit of pieces of the three teams involved in the infections.
The
Khimki
, with multiple positive, will
travel to Spain to be measured at the
Real Madrid on Wednesday in the capital and Baskonia Vitoria Friday
.
It will do so with the
eight players
available in the squad, the limit for the Euroleague, and with the casualties due to coronavirus, among others, of
former
Madrid player Jordan Mickey
and former NBA
Greg Monroe
.
In addition, he has the injuries of Stefan Jovic, Errick McCollum and his star, Alexey Shved.
Zenit
was also going to travel from Russia to Spain
, in an inexplicable circumstance seeing the
19 positives
that accumulate between the squad and the coaching staff, including the Spanish coach
Xavi Pascual
.
Those from Saint Petersburg, who
received Barcelona just four days ago
, had to play matches in Vitoria and Valencia, but finally the Euroleague decided to suspend them due to the obvious risk of the epidemic spreading and because they were not able to reach the minimum number of players.
"
We do not have a guarantee that the squad will travel healthy,
" explained the general manager of the Russian club, Alexander Tserkovny.
Now it will be up to the Disciplinary Judge of the competition to decide what type of sanction falls on Zenit.
Two losses 20-0, the most likely option.
And to continue.
"
They penalize us for infecting us,
" said his escort
KC Rivers
annoyed
.
In France,
Asvel
, chaired by exNBA
Tony Parker
, has asked the Euroleague to suspend its match against
Panathinaikos in Greece
.
He has only
seven players available
and he has called two homegrown players to play and
avoid defeat by 20-0
, but they know that it is not safe.
Yesterday they warned of two infections in their squad and another two in the coaching staff, so they have asked to "
isolate the entire squad
."
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