By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Can the political crisis in Ukraine affect the country’s basketball infrastructure in every level and put in danger the organization of Eurobasket 2015? There’s no official reaction from FIBA Europe yet, but at this point everything seems to be up in the air not only because of political, but also because of financial reasons.
Eurohoops with the help of Oleksandr Proshuta already documented the exodus of foreign players, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. As it turned out the clubs which released players with the exception of Ferro are all controlled by managements which have ties with the previous regime of the country.
In total seven clubs of the league are sponsored by PrivatBank, which also has a sponsorship deal with Zalgiris Kaunas. Its owner, Ihor Kolomoyskiy, is one of the richest men in Europe and also the new governor of Dnipropetrovsk region. According to older reports during the last decade he has been connected with both political rivals, Yulia Tymoshenko and Victor Yushchenko.
Basketball related sources expect that Privatbank is not going to support financially seven different clubs next season and it’s hard to predict what will happen in the near future of the league. However the fate of most clubs seems tied to the fate of Eurobasket’s organization, while the new gyms in host cities Kiev, Dnipro, Odessa and Lviv are still in early stages of their development. Privatbank is also involved in the construction of the venues and that’s why it has such a crucial role in the basketball scene. Meanwhile, already the French and the Greek basketball federations have expressed their interest to organize Eurobasket 2015 if FIBA Europe wants to get the tournament out of Ukraine.