A song for the EuroLeague: And the boat came back alone, without the fisherman in it

Eight of the nine games of the 19th game of the Euroleague were postponed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus and the mutation “Omicron” that dominates from east to west. The last one was Barcelona-CSKA

And so he was left alone, like a flickering candle, the Armani Milano zenith, which at the moment has no topic and is expected to take place normally on Friday, January 7th.

In other words, we’re going to see the almost comically tragic event of a one-game game! One might reasonably ask, since the course of the pandemic has shown what would follow, what is the reason not to postpone the whole game, maybe another, so that most of the teams calm down a bit and the event doesn’t turn into a mess .

She’s not the only one, of course. The situation in the Premier League, the best league in the world, is reaching the limit of the fiasco, as the teams are being decimated by Covid-19 and, in combination with the Copa Africa, the question of reliability and real recording of the club’s dynamics the ranking. . The consequences of the other events on English soil are parallel, since the prime minister has a ten-day break.

Many NBA teams that activated contracts from the G League, and even veterans who took the opportunity to get back on the pro floor, have downloaded emergency compositions in the past.

However, there were no races with a match anywhere. This is where the EuroLeague, which just a few days ago organized a conference call for the teams on the subject of reducing the quarantine, made its debut in relation to vaccinated athletes who have contracted the coronavirus again. Couldn’t the team representatives put the question of postponing a game or two on the table?

Yet the issue was not officially addressed. We don’t know why, or rather, we can make a few assumptions.

• Some teams had already been postponed, meaning they knew they weren’t going to play anyway, so the subject didn’t bother them anyway.
• Others were certain they would not gamble due to the virus’ aggressive invasion, which was only a matter of time before infecting those who originally fled.
• And some would like to play since they had no cases so postponing the prospect of a comfortable win against opponents who only had eight players to play would not serve.

Certainly in this case (as in some others in the past) there was no longer term view and it was preferred not to even discuss the subject. Basically, of course, we don’t have a game as there is one game left as the remainder of the 19th game and this is added at the end of the day at the expense of the logic that prevailed in the organization.

It is actually believed that the Euroleague has slowly moved into a new era where teams play a more important role in decisions, there is no longer the power of one (Bertomeu) to … we can easily reload any sin either or passed.

A shift of 500 problems

But to be fair we have to say that for them EuroLeague Postponing a game is, we all believe, no easy task with two or three more bureaucratic measures. The exact opposite is the case. A single postponement brings a lot of trouble for the organizers.

The pressure on the appointments in the calendar is great. Yes, there is room for games that have been postponed or won’t be on time due to the virus, but it’s not … plentiful. There is corresponding pressure in the national leagues, which, like us, have in some cases decided to postpone entire games.

The day before yesterday Giannis Sfeiropoulos fought against the Israeli league, because Maccabi played three games in a row for the championship. THAT EuroLeague should find the free dates, not collide with the national competitions and above all ensure the existence of existing stadiums. Many of the arenas used in the Euroleague are not only used by the teams, as is the case with Olympiakos and Panathinaikos. Other events are planned, so an extraordinary game should coincide with dates when there is nothing else.

Note that many of these events will be postponed, also due to the coronavirus, making it even more difficult to find dates for an available arena.

There is therefore a certain great difficulty that always pushes the organization with postponements and the logic prevailing is to “postpone only those that cannot be carried out”.

But that on Friday EuroLeague will only be a match, reminiscent of the text by Thanos Sofos from the old beautiful song by Toni Maroudas “and the boat came back alone, without the fisherman inside, empty without oars, out of the deep water” ΄

It was sung by the Belcado Trio …