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Lithuania suspends one of top basketball clubs to secure Olympic tournament

Xinhua, April 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

Lithuanian basketball federation has voted on Wednesday to suspend the country' s basketball club Lietuvos rytas which have chosen to compete in Eurocup' s tournament in response to FIBA' s pressure.

The decision was taken with absolute majority, announced the federation after holding an immediate voting. The procedure was held in response to the threat that Lithuanian men's national team could skip the 2016 Rio Olympics, revealed the federation.

Lithuania is among 14 European basketball federations that have faced FIBA' s pressure because their basketball clubs have chosen to compete in the Euroleague and the Eurocup instead of FIBA' s proposed Basketball Champions league which was officially launched last month.

FIBA has now warned that the country' s national men basketball team would be banned from attending the Rio 2016 Olympics and FIBA' s championships if it doesn' t comply with FIBA Europe' s decision, which prohibits its leagues and clubs to have agreements with the Euroleague and its related leagues, said the federation.

"We received the information that Lithuanian basketball federation must solve this problem immediately. Therefore, we held an immediate voting," the secretary general of Lithuanian national federation Mindaugas Spokas was quoted as saying in the announcement.

Just four days ago, Lithuania' s top basketball organization played down the fears that Lithuania could be banned from the EuroBasket 2017 and the 2016 Rio Olympics, saying that probability is "theoretical" .

According to the federation, the decision to ban the country from Olympic basketball tournament would be made during the FIBA meeting over the weekend.

Zalgiris and Lietuvos rytas, Lithuania' s two best basketball clubs have agreements with Euroleague.

Lietuvos rytas, the second place winners in the previous Lithuanian national championship, are to face the sanctions first. In March, the club signed a new agreement with the Euroleague commercial assets to play in its second tier tournament the Eurocup, reports news website vz.lt.

Responding to the federation' s decision, Lietuvos rytas announced it will not change its decision.

"Nothing has changed. We' ve already chosen, we will play in the matches held by the Euroleague," the manager of Lietuvos rytas Martynas Purlys told local basketball news website krepsinis.net.

Last year, Lithuanian national basketball team headed by the head coach Jonas Kazlauskas won silver medals in the Eurobasket 2015 and qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Endit