Her strong discomfort with her decision Euroleague to postpone yesterday’s match against Paris in France due to the home team’s inability to present at least eight available players after a wave of viruses “hit” the roster, Fenerbahce says. The Turkish team characterizes the decision as not serious and considers that it creates a precedent that can be exploited by some teams, while emphasizing that all teams must make provision to have a sufficient number of players to cover any gaps. The announcement in detail:
“As is known, by decision and notification of Euroleague yesterday, the Paris-Fenerbahce match was postponed to a later date in accordance with Euroleague regulations, due to the epidemic that the home team has and the inability to line up the minimum number of eight players.
Our Fenerbahce team, one of the major Euroleague players, always shares the mission of this competition “to be the representative of European basketball at the highest level” and takes all steps accordingly. However, we regret to say that the situation that occurred yesterday does not match the seriousness and level of this organization. The Euroleague offers basketball fans the most special games and the highest level of competition in Europe. In terms of its conditions, it presents a very demanding marathon to the participating groups and imposes the establishment of organizations that will be responsible for meeting its requirements. The large number of games played during the season, taking into account double game weeks as well as local leagues, pushes teams to start with big teams and deal with their financial difficulties. Because of all these requirements, Euroleague teams must be formed by meeting the budgets established within the rules. They are responsible for building a large roster and at the same time building strong infrastructure organizations from which they can get support, especially in such emergency situations.
The Covid period, which the whole world had to deal with in the recent past, had of course revealed situations that caused the postponement of matches, considering the effects of this deadly disease, as agreed by all the Euroleague teams. However, in a situation that cannot be evaluated in this context, the postponement decision taken hours before the start of the relevant competition is in no way compatible with the seriousness of an organization like the Euroleague, which we defend in every environment by us . its participants.
One of the main tasks of the Euroleague management is to anticipate such and similar situations that may cause great damage to the seriousness of the Euroleague competition, to take the necessary measures at the beginning of the season to ensure the continuity of the competitions and to implement all necessary sanctions at the start of the season, especially to ensure that clubs can provide the necessary support of players from the academies in emergency situations.
We regret the current situation in Paris and wish a speedy recovery to all those affected by the outbreak. However, our team, Fenerbahçe, continued to play without any excuse, despite their absences due to illness and injury in many matches since the beginning of the season, and in a similar situation for this match, they traveled from Barcelona to Paris after from long hours of travel after the first match of the week of the doubleheader. One of the most significant aspects of the complaint this situation causes and upsets us is the situation our fans are experiencing.
Hundreds of Fenerbahce fans bought tickets for this match and traveled from surrounding provinces and countries to support our team at the “Adidas Arena”. This complaint, especially experienced by our valued fans, made this decision even more unacceptable to us. It is also clear that this decision sets a very dangerous precedent for the future and opens the way for abuses.
Our team landed last night in Istanbul, based on the urgently revised travel schedule, and will continue training to prepare for the upcoming games.”
Source: Sport Fm
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