The president of the Italian Basketball Federation, Gianni Petrucci, touched on the thorny issue of EuroLeague players not being able to play with their national teams in the FIBA World Cup qualifiers.
Italy / Schedule
Russia
Italy
NetherlandsPetrucci spoke ahead of the game between Italy and the Netherlands, pointing out that “it is a blasphemy that the Euroleague can be allowed to say 'I give you the players‘. They are conditioning the Olympics, we have seen Germany and Turkey lose at home...
This only happens in basketball, where the EuroLeague is incredibly arrogant. It is not a problem of FIBA," the Italian executive said before further explaining:
"I could understand if it was the NBA doing it but from the EuroLeague, it is very serious and unacceptable. Why do players undergo operations amidst national team games and not during the season?”, Petrucci asked rhetorically.
He also made a comparison with football: "We saw what happened with the European Superleague and other situations, the case went to the European Parliament. I hope someone can do something about it. Even Mancini (editor's note: Italy's national coach in football) missed many players and we saw how it went.”
