By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The last Lithuanian league (LKL) board meeting forces VTB to change its competition system just one week after the draw for next season. As VTB accepted since Friday, Lietuvos Rytas, Neptunas, Dzukija, Nevezis and Lietkabelis are expected to forfeit their spots and the league is probably going to change its system to 14 or 16 clubs competition, without any divisions into groups.
Lietuvos Rytas and Neptunas announced officially that they will not play in the VTB, Zalgiris Kaunas has left the league since last season and the question is if there’s any political motive behind this mess. Due to the tense situation in the region, Ukrainian teams also left VTB. Lithuanians and Russians have their own history, however the motive for their clubs decision seems to be mostly practical. Under the new four round system of LKL, Lithuanian clubs has to play 40 games in their domestic competition, while Neptunas and Rytas have also to compete in Euroleague and Eurocup.
However, the Vilnius city council informed the team of the city, Lietuvos Rytas, that they would lose any kind of public funding if they played in VTB. The official position of Rytas, as expressed by the press officer Remigijus Kazilionis, is the following: “Taking into consideration the geopolitical situation and tournament’s sporting principles, we decided not to play in the VTB League. This competition is looking increasingly more similar to an open Russian championship, as only teams from this country can qualify for European tournaments.The decision was strongly influenced by the fact that the LKL will be played in a four-round system, so it would be physically impossible to fit another twenty games into the calendar”.
Still the fact remains that it’s almost impossible for a Lithuanian team to play in any other domestic competition under the new LKL format. As the official announcement of Neptunas put it: “Taking into consideration the new competition format in LKL and the debut in Euroleague, we are withdrawing from the VTB League. f the team decided to play in all competitions, the total number of games would surpass 80. We would’ve had to play 3 times a week”. That may be feasible in the NBA, but not in Europe across three different competitions with a schedule that doesn’t take traveling into consideration.
UPDATE: On August 1st VTB league announced that no Lithuanian teams will participate next season and a new 16 teams competition format is expected to be approved until the 11th of August.