Maybe the Euroleague decided not to suspend action at the event, but the ongoing outbreak of coronavirus leads to a unprecedented situation, which had not been faced since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
Last season only 19 matches were postponed and held on different dates throughout the regular season, while This year, 13 postponements have already been collected in the last two games (18th and 19th), in total 14 with Zalgiris-Armani of the 17th matchday.
The Euroleague program does not provide no breaks 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 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 was played due to the many cases. In addition, FIBA ​​has scheduled matches for the World Cup qualifiers at the end of February (February 24-25 and February 27-28), while there is a “window” at the end of June and beginning of July, as well as at the end of August, a few days before Eurobasket (September 1-18).
It is noted that on Monday it was decided by the Euroleague reduction of quarantine for vaccinated players found positive from 14 to 7 days, as long as they do two negative tests within 48 hours. For the unvaccinated, the quarantine time remains at 14 days. In fact, if a team has eight available players and an unvaccinated player is not allowed to enter another country due to restrictions, his own absence will not be counted to postpone the match. It is noted that 93-94% of Euroleague teams and staff are vaccinated.
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 through their own 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 matches will be allowed after April 14th, ie in the week following the end of the regular season and before the one in which the playoffs begin. In fact, it is possible to hold a match in a neutral venue, if the need arises due to the pandemic.
End, in the extreme case of a season break, the score that exists at the time of the break 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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