Russia (bbabo.net), - United Basketball League has postponed the matches "Yenisei" (Krasnoyarsk) - "Zelena Gora" (Poland), "Parma" (Perm Territory) - "Avtodor" (Saratov) to indefinite dates , "Astana" (Kazakhstan) - "Parma". The reason is positive tests for coronavirus among the players of the Siberian and Perm clubs. But the United League does not intend to completely interrupt the tournament, as they did in the KHL.
Recall that earlier, due to positive tests for the Polish team, the match between Zielona Gora and Kalev (Estonia) was postponed from January 8, and two other changes in the calendar that have occurred have nothing to do with the pandemic. Games involving Astana (against Lokomotiv-Kuban and Tsmoki-Minsk) were postponed due to the unstable situation in Kazakhstan at the time of the decision.
As for the games "Yenisey" - "Zelena Gora", "Parma" - "Avtodor" and "Astana" - "Parma", they were originally scheduled for January 15, 16 and 23, respectively.
The press service of the United League explained to the correspondent that there are sufficiently strong safety measures in place to avoid a situation in which the tournament calendar will crack at the seams and the championship will be in jeopardy. The competition regulations provide for the possibility of applying for new players for any period - no more than 16 players and no more than 20 players can be in the "team passport" at the same time during the season. In addition, and what is very important, clubs can enter players for the match from farm teams and youth teams.
Here it is also necessary to understand that according to the rules, for example, of the Euroleague, a team must have at least eight players in the application for a match. In the United League, they now adhere to the point of the official rules of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) - if the team recruits five people to enter the starting lineup, then the game can begin. It is not out of place at the present time to recall another rule, which, as life and personal communication has shown, is far from familiar to all people who consider themselves experts in basketball. The game continues as long as there are at least two players on the court. In the mid-1990s, this happened in the European Cup match "Dynamo" (Moscow) - "Panionios" (Greece) because of the mass brawl that followed then the mass of fouls, the "white-and-blue" on the site at USC CSKA were left alone. Evgeny Pashutin and Pavel Astakhov fought heroically with five rivals.
All eight Russian clubs playing in the United League are organized according to the "pyramid" system, at the base of which are youth and youth teams. So in the event of a covid force majeure, the main team will have someone to play calendar meetings. The farm teams of CSKA and Krasnodar Lokomotiv-Kuban play in Superleague 1. They all have representatives in the VTB United Youth League. These are Zenit-M, CSKA-Junior, Lokomotiv-Kuban-2-TsOP, Parma-M, UNICS-2, Nizhny Novgorod-2, Avtodor-2 and Yenisei-2 .
Plus, United League clubs can sign free agents for short-term contracts. There is a certain analogy with the NBA, where there is a practice of drawing up 10-day agreements.
The current position of the leaders in the championship: CSKA, UNICS (Kazan), Avtodor (Saratov) - 8 wins - 2 losses, Zenit (St. Petersburg) - 7-3, Parma (Perm Territory) - 6- 4, Lokomotiv-Kuban (Krasnodar) - 5-4.
Where will we watch
Sunday, January 16"Match TV", "TV Start"
18.00. UNICS (Kazan) - BC "Nizhny Novgorod". Live broadcast.
Monday, January 17
"Match! Country", "TV Start"
20.00. Zenit (St. Petersburg) - CSKA. Live broadcast.
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