VTB United League general director Ilona Korstin was a guest of Vse na match show of Match TV. Along with TV host Roman Skovrtsov and Russian national team coach Sergey Bykov, she discussed the preparation for new VTB United League season.
“If the borders remain closed, we’ll play internal championship with Russian clubs,” told Ilona Korstin. “Non-Russian clubs like Zielona Gora and Kalev will play against each other. Tsmoki will come to Russia if possible. Astana is a tricky matter. We monitor the situation in Kazakhstan on daily basis. A couple of days ago they restarted the football league. We hope basketball will be allowed as well. But anyway, we hope that the borders are open and we can play the league in regular mode.”
League general director spoke on spectators in the arenas, “The championship will start with open gates. The question is the arenas’ allowed capacity and it depends on the region. It’s going to be from 10% to 50% of arena’s regular capacity. But everything can change in the nearest future. I hope the changes will be for the better.”
Sergey Kushchenko also joined the show and told how special the preparation is during the pandemic.
“We have a kind of command staff working everyday. We gather information of countries, clubs, regions of our clubs to understand the situation,” revealed Sergey Kushchenko during the show. “By Septbember 20, we hope to have the pattern of procedure. We see it in football league: if a player finds positive, everyone who have contacted him shall make a test and stay isolated. For example, CSKA head coach Itoudis have gone through the illness. He’s arrived to Moscow and still has to remain isolated for 14 days like many players.”
