First of all, the Euroleague announces that it will stick to its basketball schedule despite the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Then she agrees to FC Bayern Munich’s request to move the home game against CSKA Moscow. The broadcasting station Magenta TV is also reducing its program.
The Euroleague home game of the FC Bayern basketball team against CSKA Moscow, which was planned for Thursday evening, was canceled an hour and a half before the start of the game at the request of the Munich team. The reason is the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Under the impression of the events in Ukraine, today’s game against CSKA Moscow has been postponed to a later date at short notice,” the Munich team wrote on their Instagram channel early Thursday evening. Marko Pesic, managing director of the Bayern basketball team, and club president Herbert Hainer had, as the club later announced, “under the current impression of the blatant breach of international law by Russia” submitted an application for the game to be postponed. “FC Bayern welcomes the correct decision by the Euroleague,” said Herbert Hainer, according to the announcement. “FC Bayern condemns the Russian attack on Ukraine. I would like to thank Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu for an intensive and constructive exchange on this very sad day.”
At the time of the cancellation, the teams had already arrived at the Audi Dome and were already standing on the floor. According to an FC Bayern spokesman, CSKA Moscow then planned to fly back to the Russian capital in the evening.
The telephone lines between the Euroleague, FC Bayern and the CSKA basketball team had been running hot all day. First, the Euroleague had sent out a message at noon with the tenor to stick to its game plan: “The Euroleague Basketball will proceed with the planned competition calendar, unless the integrity of all participating teams is endangered and/or there are government decisions that prevent that games will take place under normal circumstances,” the letter said. As a result, the 18 Euroleague clubs want to meet this Friday to discuss how to proceed.
Nevertheless, Bayern applied for the game to be rescheduled, which was eventually granted. The other games of this day with Russian participation, Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz against Unics Kazan and Zenit St. Petersburg against FC Barcelona, have also been suspended. The broadcaster Magenta TV announced that it would massively scale back its basketball program: “Due to the Russian attack on Ukraine, MagentaSport will not broadcast today’s Euroleague game between FC Bayern Munich and CSKA Moscow. The other games with Russian participation will also be canceled until further.”