Turkoglu hopes to resume Turkish leagues when ‘things start to get a little more normal’

President of the Turkish Basketball Federation Hidayet Turkoglu talks with Anadolu Agency: “Our desire is to return to the court and finish all the leagues. I say this humanly. Of course, human health comes first. Since we took office, we have tried to manage the federation transparently and fairly. So our first wish is to get the leagues back to play once these things start to get a little more normal. We are different from football in this process. Many foreign footballer remained here. But foreign basketball players, especially US players, returned to their countries. We will come to a certain situation like June or July. It may be earlier or later. When everything is normalized, we want to play the leagues in June, July and August. After this we will plan for the next season.

At the moment, most of our team’s foreign players have returned to their homes. When will the journeys begin, when will we bring these people to our country, will the returners enter the quarantine process? When these questions become clear, we will make a clearer plan. Then we end up with a fair season where everyone will be happy and the winner will be certain on the court. After that, we can make healthier plans for the 2020-2021 season. As a management team, of course we are considering the worst case scenario too and we are preparing for it, but we don’t even want to talk about it right now”