Venezia coach De Raffaele: Players were asking me to get fans in Kazan to put on masks

2020-11-11T13:56:42+00:00 2020-11-11T14:05:19+00:00.

Antonis Stroggylakis

11/Nov/20 13:56

Eurohoops.net

The coach of Venezia and some of the players found it weird that fans in Kazan weren’t wearing protective masks.

By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net

Reyer Venezia coach Walter De Raffaele said that during the EuroCup Round 6 game against Unics in Kazan, Russia (4/11), some of his players were urging him to somehow intervene in order for fans in the arena to put protective masks on.

“I had players during the game in Kazan who came to ask me if I could make an intervention to get the fans to put on masks,” Raffaele said to Udinese TV’s “Basket a Nord-Est” show, per Basket Italy.

A source told Eurohoops that some Venezia players thought it was “strange” to see some of the fans in Kazan not wearing masks during the game.

The match between Unics and Venezia had a registered attendance of 1945 people, according to EuroCup Basketball. This is approximately 26 percent of the 7482 capacity that the Basket-Hall Kazan arena has available for basketball events.

On Tuesday (10/11), Venezia announced that recent tests confirmed several COVID-19 cases on the team, something that led to the suspension of its activities. The EuroCup Round 7 game vs. Partizan Belgrade won’t be held and will be rescheduled for a later date.
“I don’t want to say that we expected it, but having to continuously travel around Europe creates this when you go around and we come from difficult trips,” Raffaele said. “The one in Kazan was full of fans and most didn’t have masks. I think that’s something that clashes with this moment where everyone is trying to take a step forward in the midst of a thousand difficulties.”

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