The solidarity of Virtus and Fortitudo Bologna
The big rivals from the city of Bologna have decided to join forces for the same goal: asking for patience in the cancelling process of the Italian league. These clubs are considering according to Sportando that it must to be the Italian government, not the Italian Basketball Federation, the authority to cancel the Legabasket.
Virtus and Fortitudo Bologna addressed a letter to the basketball federation’s president, Umberto Gandini and also to the other teams involved in the Italian championship to wait a bit with the cancellation of the league. This was scheduled for today, but it could be moved to 10 April. It will remain to see how other clubs from the Italian league will react to the proposal, since it seemed that not so many are in favor of it. Today, all the teams involved in Legabasket will be consulted about this topic in a video conference.
Virtus Bologna is the leader in rankings in the Italian league, suffering only 2 defeats in 20 games. They have an excellent roster with great foreigners and local players and their hope for this season was to win the title in Italy. The club is having as well a good season in Eurocup, where they were true title contenders from the beginning of the competition. The club has invested a lot this season, having a budget superior to some Euroleague teams.
Fortitudo Bologna instead was coming from the second league and they were in a playoff position when the league stopped due to Coronavirus outbreak in Italy, one of the most affected countries in Europe. Even if the disease is seem to decrease in new cases in Italy, the possibility to start again the league in the near future is minimal. The things will be decided the next days, but it’s nice to see the solidarity of the two arch-rivals who are fighting now for the same goal.
Photo: Eurocup
Gratian Cormos
