“UNICS will struggle to defend their title. But this applies to any team that has reached the top – Minister of Sports of Tatarstan

Minister of Sports of Tatarstan Vladimir Leonov in an interview with “” said that the mood of hatred in Kazan UNICS no, basketball players understand that they will still have to prove their worth after the championship season.

In the last season of the VTB United League, UNICS became the champions for the first time in history. The last playoff series against Lokomotiv-Kuban ended with a 4-1 win for Kazan.

– UNICS has been heading for victory in the VTB United League for a long time and last season managed to win the first championship in its history. Well Named?

– UNICS is the champion! We have been waiting for this for a long time. The team has one of the strongest coaches in the world – Velimir Perasovich. Although before that we had a good Greek specialist, Dimitris (Priftis, – ed.), but the team became champions under the Croatian. The plot was incredible both in the penultimate season and in the past, where there was a series of worthwhile semi-finals with Zenit. And even the final with Lokomotiv-Kuban, despite the fact that it turned out to be quite fast, was very tense.

This victory is a great success for the club, for its president. Let’s see what the selection will be in the offseason. If I’m not mistaken, the coach remains, but some player contracts have expired and some have been transferred to other clubs. It will probably be difficult for UNICS to defend their title. But that’s true for any team that’s made it to the top – competitors always want to knock you out. The team has the ambition to win, there is no hateful mood in the club, everyone understands that a new season is coming, in which they will have to prove their worth again, Leonov said at MatchTV.

On July 6, the VTB United League released the schedule for the 2023/24 regular season, which will start on September 30 with the match between UNICS and Lokomotiv-Kuban.