Basketball Serie A, Fip declares the championship ended

Basketball Serie A, Fip declares the championship endedBasketball Serie A, Fip declares the championship ended

Men’s basketball surrenders to Coronavirus and Fip with an official statement declares the Serie A championship ended

It had already happened with the women’s basketball championship, after that of rugby and volleyball. Now also the Serie A basketball championship is officially declared over. It was the FIP, as announced in the last few hours, to issue this official press release which also appeared on the federation website:

‘The President of the Italian Basketball Federation Giovanni Petrucci, considering the LBA’s determination to delegate any and all decisions regarding the early closure of the 2019/2020 season and having heard the Federal Council through the short routes, declares the Serie A Championship ended.

This decision was made following the continuing epidemiological emergency of COVID-19 on the whole national territory.

The FIP is determined to protect the health of athletes, technicians, referees, managers, of all those who participate in the organization of the championship competitions and their families.

Considering that from the Prime Ministerial Decree and from the Ordinances issued, so far, by the Government and the Regions, no certain dates emerge regarding the possibility of resuming sports activities in conditions of total safety, it cannot be thought that basketball competitions are held on the territory national, and in particular in the geographical areas most affected by the epidemic.

Furthermore, precise and stringent indications concerning social distancing come from the Government, Regions and science. Impossible measures to implement for a contact sport such as basketball.

It is also known that many clubs have authorized the departure of many athletes of foreign citizenship to their country of origin. It is therefore the duty of the FIP to take every initiative that can protect its affiliates and members.

Declaring the current sports season ended allows clubs and members to adopt all the necessary behaviors to avoid further costs to be incurred in the absence of activities.

FIP believes that it will also adopt this provision in consideration of the impossibility of competing in the presence of thousands of fans, the founding patrimony of the Italian basketball movement.

These are the reasons behind the decision to declare the men’s Serie A Championship ended for the 2019/2020 season. ‘

The decision comes after the sports minister Spadafora had consulted with the president of Fip Petrucci and that of the Gandini League to understand how to overcome the emergency and after the A2 had also been declared concluded. The debate over the last few days on the possibility of declaring the season ended and possibly assigning the league title to Virtus Bologna has been very heated. Certainly there were no objective conditions to start again and above all two proved to be the main obstacles. The difficulty in bringing back to Italy a large part of the foreign players who started after the suspension of the championship and the prospect of playing in buildings closed to the public, inadmissible for many companies that have one of the main sources of income from the box office. Now, waiting to understand how the situation will be resolved, especially linked to the promotions and relegations speech, it is possible that Fip will face various lawsuits. The situation is constantly updated, certainly the basketball that we will review at the restart by format and number of foreigners could be very different from what we saw until March.

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