By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
VTB United League’s Central Board had a meeting on Sunday, in Moscow in order to decide next season’s changes. And here are all the new facts
The games will still be held on Mondays and Tuesdays, but instead of 18 teams, from next season VTB United League will have 20 teams (the maximum participants from Russia can be nine), divided in two groups, with 10 teams.
Then, the best 8 teams of each group will go at the Top 16 (in 2 groups with 8 teams, each one) and the best 4 will go to the play offs. The quarterfinals will be decided in best of three series, but the semifinals and the finals in best of five. Also, they are going to have a series for places 3-4. So, you can forget all about the Final Four. Also, you can count around 36 games for each team that goes all the way.
And if you add the games for Euroleague and Eurocup, they can reach around 60 games, per season. And that’s why the president of VTB United League, Sergei Ivanov said he will have a meeting with the administration of the PBL to discuss about the possibility for the Russian teams of VTB to play only at the playoffs of the Russian league. For now, this is a decision which is up to the teams (if they want to play at both competitions, they can do that and if they don’t… again there is no problem).
Every team is going to present to VTB United League its budget and they are going to add a qualification round, cause they have too many requests from new teams to be added in the competition. And that’s where the worst team of each season is going to end up.