President UNICS Evgeny Bogachev told that he was upset by the Euroleague’s decision to extend the ban on Russian clubs’ participation in their tournaments, despite being ready for such a turn of events.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Euroleague board extended the suspension of Russian clubs for next season. The decision was taken at the shareholders’ meeting. Dejan Bodiroga’s candidacy for Euroleague president has also been approved.
Has the Euroleague extended the suspension? Needless to say, bad, of course. They didn’t ban the United States from playing when they bombed Yugoslavia, did they? And others were also not prohibited in certain types of conflicts. And here the conflict is not of such a direct scale … Again, it’s a shame that they extended the suspension.
Many European players, of course, read all this unreliable information which they say is dangerous here. America tries to recall basketball players all the time. I don’t know, maybe they have other ideas. And what about athletes? What about sports? Everywhere there are small and big conflicts. The same Israeli “Maccabi” plays. Yes, everyone is playing.
– Did you expect UNICS to play in the Euroleague in the new season?
– No. I hope we will play with other more loyal foreign clubs. True, for example, it is far from flying to China. Iran? The level of basketball is lower there. I don’t know, to be honest. But again, I have no hope yet. But all that happens, of course, is discrimination.
In general, we will wait, hope. And if not, I think we can do without it. We will develop our Russian basketball. We have so many regions, but only ten play in competitions of the highest category – in the VTB United League. We have a big space here,” Bogachev told a correspondent.
Initially, the Euroleague, under the auspices of which the Eurocup is also held, excluded Russian clubs from the tournaments in March 2022. This decision was made due to the situation in Ukraine. CSKA Moscow, UNICS Kazan and Zenit St. Petersburg could not complete the Euroleague 2021/22 season, Krasnodar Lokomotiv Kuban failed in the Eurocup. In June last year, the suspension of Russian teams from tournaments for the 2022/23 season was announced.
Last season, UNICS became the winner of the VTB United League for the first time in history.
Source : MatchTV
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