Let’s sketch our own – Newspaper Kommersant No. 182 (7383) dated 10/01/2022

The 14th VTB United League championship starts on Sunday. In some way, it will be unique, the first full-fledged championship after the introduction of Western sanctions against Russian sports structures. However, fears that the tournament would lose foreign players did not materialize. There are plenty of them in the league. Moreover, the forced reformatting of the championship, most likely, will lead to the fact that the intrigue in it will only increase.

On Sunday, the regular, already 14th championship of the VTB United League begins. In the opening match, two representatives of the big four of the championship, Zenit and UNICS, will play. This season’s tournament is special: it should show how the league will be able to cope with the problems.

There are two of them. The first is that in the course of last season, after the introduction of Western sanctions against Russian sports, the league lost two participants – the Estonian Kalev and the Polish Zielona Gora. The gap needed to be filled, and the league decided to take the Moscow MBA and Samara into its roster. This returned the number of participants in the tournament to 12 teams. At the same time, the league decided to change the scheme of the championship. At the first stage, the teams will play a two-round tournament. Then they will be divided into two groups – six in each. The participants of the first stage (teams with the best results will get into it) in the second stage will play for the distribution of places in the top 6. Teams in the “bottom” six will compete for two more places in the playoffs. The play-off itself will begin at the end of March and end at the end of May.

“We will have 40% more matches, and this entails certain expenses,” said Ilona Korstin, general director of the VTB United League. “For example, spending on refereeing will increase by 60%. Only Russian judges will work in the championship. A significant part of the costs is the production of a television signal: Match TV will organize the broadcasting of category A matches, and the league will organize the broadcasts of category B and C matches, and here the costs will also increase.”

The second problem was also caused by sanctions. After the start of events in Ukraine, the clubs of the league faced a mass exodus of foreigners, on whom Russian, especially top-end, clubs traditionally relied. Not just like that, but for the sake of increasing their chances in continental competitions – the Euroleague and the European Cup (league teams are now suspended from participating in them). The honorary president of the VTB United League, Sergei Ivanov, even expressed doubts that the clubs would be able to recruit replacements for the departed legionnaires for the new season, predicting intense competition for home-grown players. In general, fears were not justified. Almost all teams in the league are close to filling the limit of six foreigners. Moreover, say, CSKA managed to keep Nikola Milutinov, for whom there is a huge demand in Europe, and Zenit managed to sign a contract with Tom Ertel, who, for the sake of the St. Petersburg team, refused the prospect of playing in the French team. The exception is MBA. There are no legionnaires in its composition at all. This, however, is not surprising, if we remember that the women’s club of the same name, which plays in the Premier League, does not invite foreigners on principle. This approach apparently extended to the men’s team as well.

If we talk about top teams, then the smallest foreign representation in Lokomotiv-Kuban is only three legionnaires. This is also a conscious choice. Sergei Ivanov also mentioned him, recalling that the Krasnodar club has been relying on the education of its own personnel for more than a season. As part of the implementation of this policy, in mid-September, the largest Youth Training Center in Russian basketball was opened in Krasnodar. And as the recent VTB United League Super Cup showed, Lokomotiv-Kuban may well raise its status from just a representative of the top 4 leagues to a real contender for titles. Indeed, in the same Super Cup at the group stage, Krasnodar, thanks to homegrown players, beat Zenit, the current league champion and future Super Cup winner. However, as Lokomotiv-Kuban President Andrey Vedischev noted, new signings can still happen. “The club continues selection work. But the criteria by which we are looking for players today are very high. In any case, we plan to form such a roster to fight for the medals of the VTB United League.”

But in fairness, it must be said that so far the main favorites are the same as last season – Zenit and CSKA.

The Petersburg and Moscow giants have already given a show in the Super Bowl final, which reminded them of their amazing confrontation in the final series of the play-offs of last season. Again, Zenit was stronger – in the last seconds, the decisive three-pointer was scored by Zenit forward Thomas Wimbush. However, how ready they are to realize their ambitions and potential in the course of a busy season, because the teams will have to play twice a week, only time will tell.

Alexander Petrov