A time for actions has come. The Russian clubs representatives gathered in Moscow today to vote for new basketball league Bylaws, to elect the management and to discuss key questions of sports regulations.
12 clubs’ representatives were present on the PBL Board (the new league is supposed to be named Professional Basketball League). Except for 10 members the managers from Universitet Surgut and Sibirtelecom-Lokomotiv Novosibirsk were invited – both teams are considering joining the League this season. It took three and a half hours of talks before the journalists got a chance to enter the room.
No surprise, our club’s President Andrey Vatutin was voted as a Chairman of the Board. He thanked all the media for a long wait, noting that the process needed patience and diplomacy. Mr. Vatutin also said that the position in CSKA will be his main job, and the Chairman’s functions are mostly political, representative. Unlike the position of CEO which is taken by Lithuanian Ginas Rutkauskas, who was voted after Vatutin’s presentation. Rutkauskas will have to leave his position of Dynamo Moscow Sports Director.
The Board could not decide on some key sports questions yet. The uncertainty with the number of club’s participating prevented the Board from deciding on championship formula. The foreign players limit is also the question of talks. The next meeting is planned for Monday, June 28. Andrey Vatutin and Natalia Furaeva will fly to Barcelona tomorrow, to discuss the possibility for a new league of joining ULEB inter alia.
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