Manos Papadopoulos: Everyone wants the season to be fair. I trust the leadership of the Euroleague

Zenit St. Petersburg sport director Manos Papadopoulos.

“We have a common solution according to the current situation. Yes, it seems that we are learning more and more about the coronavirus, but also every day we do not know anything about it. Even doctors cannot give answers unequivocally. Therefore, we need to ensure that basketball is united, and the Euroleague teams are all together. Everyone wants the season to be fair. I trust the leadership of the Euroleague, as well as the 11 big clubs playing in the championship”, said Papadopoulos.

Under the current rule, if a club has eight authorized basketball players to play a match, the game must proceed as scheduled. If this number is not reached, the club is awarded a defeat. The Euroleague proposes to amend the rule so that if the clubs do not have eight players, the match can be postponed. It will be possible to transfer one game a maximum of three times, deadlines for transfer will be set.

“We keep in touch with the management and Euroleague teams all the time. I think everyone needs a common solution, because when the rules were established, the situation with the virus in Europe and the world was one, now it is different. And we really don’t know what could be in a few months”, he added.

At the moment, the entire team of the basketball club is in quarantine. According to Papadopoulos, the timing of the team’s return is unknown.

“I do not know the exact timing of the return of all players, but we must be careful, this is a very serious virus, we do not know how everyone’s body reacts to it”, he says.