By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Back at the beginning of July, linked to the presentation of former ASVEL guard Noam Yaacov to Hapoel Tel Aviv, Tony Parker announced the French side would have played in Tel Aviv for a preseason tournament to prepare for the upcoming EuroLeague season.
However, with an official press release, the club announced they decided not to travel to Israel. “In the interests of neutrality and in the face of an unstable geopolitical context, our professional team will not travel to Israel to play a preseason tournament”, the team’s statement stressed.
ASVEL’s president Tony Parker also commented on his club’s decision. “I strongly hope that calm and peace will return as soon as possible, in particular, to allow the implementation of sporting events in optimal conditions”, the French legend stated in his club’s press release.
The tournament was originally scheduled to include Hapoel Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem, the two Israeli representatives in the BKT EuroCup, while also featuring Lithuanian champions and Basketball Champions League own Rytas Vilnius, from where Marcus Foster joined the red-and-white side.
Previously, Hapoel Tel Aviv’s owner welcomed the news with satisfaction. “More teams want to join, but this will be the first set of games that will be in Israel since the tragedy that we experienced on October 7th”, Ofer Yannay stated as reported by The Sports Rabbi.