“We do not put all the blame on Raikovitch, we treat his work with great gratitude and respect” – Vatutin, president of CSKA

President CSKA Andrei Vatutin told that the Moscow club would not blame the team’s former head coach Emil Rajkovic in all recent failures.

CSKA announced Raikovich’s resignation from the post of head coach on Monday; Greek specialist Andreas Pistiolis, who previously worked as an assistant to the former head coach of the military team Dimitris Itoudis, will lead the team until the end of the season.

CSKA took third place in the VTB United League regular season. In the quarter-finals of the playoffs, the “red-blues” will meet “Yenisey”.

— I have never been a fan of evasions and sudden decisions. We all owe it to the fans. Everyone in the club, starting with me, is responsible for the result, and from now on everyone will do everything possible to correct the situation.

Despite all the problems, we showed the greatest restraint, gave the coach and the team chances, but the latest results and, above all, the quality of the game led us to this decision. From now on, a change of coach is the only significant change possible; it’s too late to change players, even if you’re unhappy with someone individually or in general.

At one point we had complaints about the dedication of the team, but gradually this problem disappeared. We see that during the match against UNICS on Saturday, the basketball players really fought and gave themselves. From conversations with the players, we understand that the desire to win has not disappeared, no one is “spoiling” the season. Something else went wrong. I repeat, we do not blame Raikovitch, we treat his work with great gratitude and respect, we admire his professionalism, efficiency, responsibility and the immense respect that he always showed at CSKA.

We achieved a lot with Emil, we saw a lot of good things, otherwise he would not have spent almost two years at the helm of the team. We had a record winning streak, a regular season victory, a bronze victory against Zenit and a good result in the first stage. The team’s character was visible in individual matches. We achieved the best results in the league in many statistical indicators. Probably, in another team, they would not have taken a risk, they would not have made such a move. But this is how CSKA works, where the goal remains unchanged under all circumstances. And any coach who joins the team understands that it is a great honor and an even greater responsibility. What another club can organize here may not be enough,” Vatoutine said in an interview with .

Watch live broadcasts of VTB United League matches on TV channels of the Match holding company, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.