The Executive Board of Shareholders of the ECA (Euroleague Commercial Assets) they have decided temporarily suspend Russian teams of the two top continental competitions. CSKA Moscow, Unics Kazan and Zenit Saint Petersburg are excluded from the Euroleague; and the Lokomotiv Kuban of the Eurocup.
The expulsion could go from temporary to permanent, according to point two of the Euroleague statement. “Euroleague Basketball continuously monitors the evolution of the situation. In case this does not do favorably, all regular season games against Russian teams will be canceled to configure the classification of the Leagues”.
In other words, if the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, all the games played by the three Slavic teams in the Euroleague, currently in playoff positions, will not be taken into account: Zenit is fifth; CSKA, sixth; and the Unics, eighth. Nor those of the Kuban, third in group A, in the Eurocup.
This would affect the Spanish representatives in the top continental competition (Real Madrid, Barcelona and Baskonia) and Joventut Badalona and MoraBanc Andorra in the second European tournament.
The Whites have played five games against Russian clubs for a record of four wins and one loss. The azulgranas, for their part, are 3-1, while the Vitorians have not won any of their four clashes. La Penya, on the other hand, defeated Lokomotiv in Badalona (100-77). Andorra fell twice: in the Kuban 93-82 and in the Principality 76-86.
“We cannot remain passive”
“We are shocked by the terrible events that are taking place in Ukraine after the Russian invasion. The EuroLeague and its teams are deeply rooted in their communities. In a situation like this, our responsibility is to support those communities and express their beliefs, sport is not politics and should not be interfered with by politics, but we cannot remain passive in the face of such a terrible social crisiswith so much suffering of innocent people and, at the same time, seeing the support that our communities across Europe have clearly expressed towards the Ukrainian population,” said Jordi Bertomeu, CEO of Euroleague Basketball, in a statement.
“I want to make it clear that we do not blame our Russian clubs, their management or team personnel.. Unfortunately, however, the seriousness of the situation has left us with no choice but to suspend all matches in which they participate, at least for the time being, and we hope that this situation ends as soon as possible, ”he concluded.