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Euroleague in “suffocation”: Critical teleconference on Monday

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Monday’s teleconference on Euroleague. The teams that have been “hit” by the coronavirus are increasing, the postponements for the 19th match seem inevitable and the calendar is so loaded that it causes “suffocation”.

In the distance meeting of the representatives of the groups is even expected to be discussed scenario of temporary cessation of the event, as it has been found that running games causes further spread of the coronavirus and the Omicron mutation.

Is given that the Euroleague protocol for the coronavirus will be revised, since the epidemiological data are now different. It is expected to be discussed to reduce the quarantine time for asymptomatic players (as has already happened in the NBA) from 14 to 5-6 days. This, however, can be an obstacle to government decisions in some countries, where the 10-14 day ceiling remains and where some who have fallen ill but emerged from isolation will not be able to travel. At the same time, the limit of eight available players for the smooth conduct of a match and its non-postponement may be differentiated, as if matches are played regularly and teams are lined up with teenagers, the score and the competition throughout the tournament are altered.

The biggest headache, however, has to do with her lack of dates. Six matches have already been postponed (one from the 17th and five from the 18th game), while with the existing cases it is extremely likely that another five games will be postponed for the 19th game (Alba-Panathinaikos, Zalgiris-Olympiacos, CSKA-Barcelona, ​​Villeurbanne- Monaco and Efes-Bayern). The Euroleague program does not provide for any interruptions except for the week of February 14-20, which has been left empty due to the holding of the Final 4 and Final 8 Cups in various countries. The regular season continues uninterrupted until April 7-8 (with three more devil weeks) and the playoffs are scheduled from April 19 to May 4. Mass postponements in the national championships also create a bigger problem in the calendar. For example, our Stoiximan Basket League has already postponed the 12th and 13th games, while in the ACB for the 16th game only one match will be played due to the many cases.

There is not much room to extend the season, as among other things there are World Cup qualifiers in June and August, while Eurobasket is scheduled for September and the players will have to rest at some point.

With the valid protocol matches can be postponed due to incidents if there are not at least eight players available, but no match can be postponed more than three times and those teams that exceed the limit and do not find an available date will lose the match 20-0 with their own their fault. Also, a 20-0 defeat is predicted for the teams that will not comply with the health protocols in the first offense and their expulsion from the tournament in the next.

It is noted that no postponed match can be held after April 14 (end of regular season). In fact, it is possible to hold a match in a neutral venue, if the need arises due to the pandemic.

Finally, in the extreme case of interruption of the season, the score that exists at the time of interruption can be considered final both for the completion of the season and for qualifying for the next phase. If necessary, the teams will give the remaining / postponed games to balance the number of matches given by each team.

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