Director of EuroBasket 2015 tournament Markiyan Lubkivsky suggests rescheduling the European Basketball Championship in Ukraine for 2017.
“Due to objective force majeure I think that our state, represented by our government and the Basketball Federation, has a perfect right to address FIBA Europe with the suggestion to allow Ukraine to conduct the championship in 2017 and to entrust a certain European country or a number of countries to conduct the 2015 tournament. It will be right and fair, considering that the huge part of the preparations have been already carried out: construction of arenas, which can become ‘white elephants’ if they aren’t completed, has begun; huge amount of organizational work has been done and it mustn’t be in vain,” the press service of local organizing committee for EuroBasket 2015 quotes Lubkivsky ‘s statement on Wednesday.
Lubkivsky said he couldn’t imagine how to carry out preparations in the current severe economic and political conditions.
“The first and main unfavorable condition is the aggression of Russia towards the Ukraine that has caused instability and threatens the security of South-Eastern regions of Ukraine. This situation demands that Ukraine review its priorities and concentrate financial and political resources on protecting its territorial integrity and even independence,” Lubkivsky added in the statement
According to him, the second unfavorable condition for preparation of EuroBasket 2015 is the complicated economic situation in Ukraine and the necessity to resolve various social issues of higher priority.
“It is obvious our country cannot afford to support private investors building the arenas or fund preparations that we are responsible for. Moreover, the local organizing committee feels there is a lack of time for a full-scale preparation of the championship,” Lubkivsky said.
The director of EuroBasket 2015 said he hoped that in the nearest future all the economic and political issues, as well as situation in Ukraine, will stabilize, which will allow the state and private investors to create a new cooperation model and finish building the arenas.
“In the end, such a decision will correspond to the Ukrainian strategy of coming closer to Europe: not to take the championship away but give Ukraine, which is currently fighting for its European future, a chance to stabilize internal situation and successfully realize this European sports project,” Lubkivsky said.
On December 18, 2011 Ukraine received the right to host the European Basketball Championship in 2015. The matches of the tournament were to be held in Kyiv, Lviv, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk.
