The VTB United League Board took place on June 14. Following the results, a press conference was held with the Honorary President of the League Sergey Ivanov, the President of the League Sergey Kushchenko and the General Manager Ilona Korstin.
Here are the main quotes of Sergey Ivanov, the Honorary VTB League President:
The list of the teams for the new season
A number of issues that were discussed today were of a principal nature. First of all, the list of the teams. The roster was expanded to 2 teams: MBA and Samara were accepted into the League as having fulfilled all theregulationsэ terms. Both teams have good arenas. Samara has been asking to join the League for a long time, but was refused due to the absence of the arena. Now there is a good arena. MBA has an arena in Krylatskoye. The arena is good, basketball games are often there. Both teams gave budget guarantees. Both teams even before joining the League had youth teams that participated in the VTB Youth League, which is important. Therefore, the absence of the youth team is a barrier to entry the League. This is very important, because the League’s teams should develop young players – and they are. Therefore, in recent years, promising young players have appeared in the VTB League youth teams.
As for sports results, both Samara and ЬBA were accepted with a trial period of 1 year. We have to see how these teams will look from a competitive point of view, as it was with PARMA-PARIBET in the first year.
About the results of newcomers in the SuperLeague-1
I will answer categorically: we are not interested in the teams’ places in the SuperLeague. We are interested in something completely different: the presence of the arena, financial guarantees and the presence of the VTB Youth League team. And what places they had, we are not very interested in.
Uralmash and Runa applications
We have reviewed the applications of these teams, and they do not meet almost any criteria of the VTB United League regulations . There are no arenas, no budget guarantee – none of this. We have learned from bitter experience and do not want to accept teams that will say in the middle of the season, “We have run out of money, we are no longer playing.” This was the case with Krasny Oktyabr , and with the Krasnye Krylya, and with Vita. Well, the sports results were bad. Therefore, when they say “And the governor promised us”, for us it is just a sound. Because we will not sue the governor, but we will sue the bank if it violates the financial guarantee.
About changes in the regulations
The regulations have changed quite a lot. Since we will not play in European competitions, we need to increase the number of games in the VTB League, which we did. 12 teams play at the initial stage in 2 rounds, after that they are divided into 2 groups per 6 teams each, which will continue to play with the results of the first stage. After that, the Top-8 teams advance to the playoffs, and then as usual. But the semifinals and finals will be up to 4 wins, and not up to 3, as it was before. Because this year’s final series, which we made up to 4 wins for the first time, proved the relevance. The 3rd place series will also be played to 4 wins.
Also, Russian teams will be required to supplement existing contracts with Russian players by September 1 with the phrase that in case of any financial disputes, the case will be resolved in the Russian sports Arbitration Court. It has already been created and is already considering cases – football, hockey. It is important that Bolomboy story wouln not be repeated, when a Russian player playing in a Russian team just said goodbye, went overseas and says that he owes nothing to anyone. Of course, we can’t ban him from playing in America, but he won’t play in Europe and China – until he pays off.
About the importance of Zenit’s win for popularization
I agree that Zenit’s championship will contribute to the popularization of basketball in the country. Any series ends sooner or later, and there is nothing eternal. Theoretically, CSKA could have won, although even before the start of the final series I said that Zenit was the favorite, at least in roster: there are much more strong legionnaires, the bench is longer – a lot of factors were there. And so it happened. Of course, it is not necessary to talk about Zenit domination. In order for Zenit to dominate, the team needs to win the VTB League for 20 years in a row and the Euroleague a couple of times.
