Euroleague: Moscow Khimki will host Maccabi Tel Aviv without an audience...

Khimki Moscow, one of the Russian basketball representatives in the Euroleague, started the season as it is among seven teams in the best league in European basketball that have received permission to bring an audience to their games. But the outbreak of corona in the city, which also affected the staff of Remas Cortinaitis, changed plans. The club officially announced today (Monday) that local authorities in the city of Khimki, located within the Moscow district, have instructed it to hold its games behind closed doors from October 21 to November 7 in order to prevent the virus from spreading in the city.

This means that Maccabi Tel Aviv, which will play in Moscow this coming Friday, will be hosted by Himki without an audience in the stands. The Russian team yesterday got back on the roster three players who have been found positive in the last two weeks: Yevgeny Voronov, Yannis Tima and Jordan Mickey. Chin Greg Monroe has also contracted Corona and compared to his teammates, has yet to recover and still will not get to make his debut this season.

The restrictions are also expected to apply to CSKA Moscow, but a decision has not yet been made because the capital city is considered a separate entity. As you may recall, CSKA’s Mega Sport Arena had about 3,500 spectators when the Yellows met the reigning European champion 11 days ago. The Reds are set to host Valencia next Thursday, while Himki will also have a game behind closed doors against Red Star Belgrade on the 30th of the month.

Meanwhile, Himki’s poor momentum from the start of the season continued tonight with a fourth consecutive loss and a third overall in the VTB League (in addition to four in the Euroleague), 89:88 against Kazakh Astana. Although some of the stars returned to the squad, led by Alexei Sheved, the Russians fell 15 points behind towards the end of the third quarter and a late comeback was not enough for them to win. Devin Booker provided an impressive double-double for Himki with 30 points and 15 rebounds, and Shevad contributed 13 points and 12 assists.

On another issue, the Euroleague board today approved changes to the regulations regarding games affected by the corona plague. Under the new decision, no technical losses will automatically be imposed on groups suffering from a virus infection or exposure to a verified patient.

So far it has been determined that the team that can not put up a squad of at least eight players, due to multiple adhesions or due to local regulations stipulating that players must go into isolation, will suffer a technical 20: 0 loss as happened to Zenit St. Petersburg in rounds 3 and 4, but the new decision sets out Another and eliminates the technical losses imposed on the Russian group and on the Villerban (whose number of patients has reached 11 at some point).

The board has determined that the deadline for holding postponed games as part of the regular season will be April 13, while the deadline for the playoffs will be May 5. Under the new regulation, each team will be able to postpone a game up to three times, after which it will suffer a technical loss in case it does not find a date for the match within the set date range.

In light of the decision, new dates will be set for canceled games in which a technical loss was imposed on Zenit and Wheelerban. Xavi Pasqual’s side was due to play against Basconia and Valencia last week, while the French had to face Panathinaikos and the Red Star Belgrade.