The main challenges of continuing the European competitions in May and June
There are some voices that are claiming the possible continuation of the basketball in Europe later this season if miraculously Covid-19 will disappear. Their solution is to play the games in May till the end of June.
I understand the passion of many people to see basketball again and of course the pressure of some teams that invested a lot of money this year. They want some results, but unfortunately it will be very hard to relaunch the basketball competitions soon.
There are a couple of problems which will affect it, even if Coronavirus will be gone in May (and that is not at all a realistic scenario). Let’s see the most important challenges of continuing the season:
– the majority of the American players have left the teams. Some clubs are not so affected but other ones, like Maccabi Tel Aviv for instance, which were building their roster almost only on Americans are completely out of competition.
– even for the teams that have kept their entire roster, there will be a huge problem generated by the impossibility to train together for weeks or months. The sportive shape and the chemistry will suffer a lot.
– the games have to be played behind closed doors so there won’t be any revenue from selling the entrance.
– not all the countries will finish with the virus in the same time and this will lead to travel disparities around the continent.
You can continue this list of challenges by yourself, and even if I am missing basketball a lot I am sure this situation won’t be solved quickly.
Photo: Euroleague
Gratian Cormos
