By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Partizan Belgrade president Ostoja Mijailovic said that while the club will accept a possible invitation to participate in the next EuroLeague season, they won’t actively pursue a wild card.
“Partizan will certainly not decide on that,” Mijailovic said to Sporski Zurnal on the team playing in next season’s EuroLeague. “If they [EuroLeague] invite us, we won’t refuse that invitation. But, as Partizan, we won’t ask for anything.”
Mijailovic then referred to the expulsion of Russian clubs from the 2021-22 EuroLeague due to the war in Ukraine. “I’ve already said several times that I’m very sorry for everything that is happening between Russia and Ukraine. We have very good relations with CSKA, with their management, we have also contacts with other clubs that are excluded. I think it’s quite unfair to the clubs that have been the backbone of European basketball for decades. That’s bad, but we aren’t so powerful that we can do something.”
Partizan can find a way to the 2022-23 EuroLeague by winning the ABA League since the competition’s champion has a priority for an annual wild card. The Serbian side could’ve punched a ticket via success in EuroCup but they were eliminated by Bursaspor in a knockout game of the eighthfinals.
“I talked about that with Zeljko a few days ago,” Mijailovic said. “We won’t give up on our young players. Maybe more experienced Americans, with NBA experience, would win games like this. But I’m sure that on the long run, talented young people will give more to the team. Both in terms of results and finances. We had by far the youngest team in EuroCup. Maybe, in a way, we paid the price of that youth.”
Speaking of “price”, Partizan’s failure to have a long EuroCup run will come at an actual cost. “If we’d made to the Final, I’m sure we would’ve received a million euros for those three games [quarterfinal, semifinal, final]. Which would mean a lot to the club in the current situation. That’s some 15 or 13 percent of the budget. It’s certainly a big blow for the club… we have to find a way to continue.”