The organization condemns “any act of war such as those occurring in Ukraine.”
The Euroleague basketball decided this Friday that its planned matches in Russia will be played outside that country, in a meeting of the 18 participating clubs, which “firmly condemn any act of war such as those that sadly occur in Ukraine.”
The Euroleague teams have decided to “define a plan to temporarily move all scheduled matches on Russian soil to places outside the territory of the Russian Federation”. However, the matches involving Russian teams that have to be played in other countries “will remain as planned”, according to a statement from the Euroleague.
Only matches between these teams will be played in Russia, as is the case of Zenit St. Petersburg against Unics Kazan and Zenit against CSKA Moscow “which will be played on March 22 and April 1, respectively.”
In this line, “The match between CSKA Moscow and Barcelona that should be played on Sunday (in the Russian capital) is suspended”added the competition note.
“These decisions have been made to protect the integrity of the competition, allowing clubs to continue defending their right to compete on the field, isolating the sport from political actions,” explained the Euroleague.
“Condemnation of any act of war”
In its statement, the European competition “firmly condemns any act of war such as those that sadly occur in Ukraine” in a note, in which it insists that the “clubs remain united in their goal of using basketball to unite communities.”
These decisions of the Euroleague come after this competition already suspended on Thursday the match that Barcelona had planned to play this Friday against Zenit Saint Petersburg in that Russian city. Barcelona had refused to fly to Russia on Thursday to play their two games against Zenit and CSKA, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Bayern Munich-CSKA Moscow and Baskonia-Unics Kazan were also postponed, all of them corresponding to the 27th day of the competition.
The Euroleague stated this Friday that “it will continue to monitor the situation, including any regulations imposed by national and international authorities, and if necessary, adopt the appropriate measures” regarding what was decided at its meeting.
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