“What we did a few weeks before the start of the Regular Season [is that] we took the correct decision, which was to change the competition format. That would allow us to have some comfort, flexibility and guarantee the conclusion of the Regular Season. As I always say, the challenging part is not to start the season, but to finish it. And we wanted to support our clubs in the best possible way in performing activities on the court. We wanted to make sure games would be played on the court, not decided in a judge’s court. To give ourselves this level of flexibility, we minimize the exposure at a time when traveling in Europe remains a major concern.
[New format] obviously decreased the number of games and allowed us to still maintain the extent of the season. In the end, we had a little bit more than 10% of our games postponed, but all of them were rescheduled. In the last five game days, we had no such issues.
Expectations were certainly different in July when we started our planning. Right now, we are extremely pleased with our decision. But it’s not about how we feel, it’s about how the clubs feel. We had a workshop with the 16 clubs that qualified a couple of days ago, just before the draw. All of them got the opportunity to express themselves and there was an overwhelming acceptance, appreciation of the work that has been done. Now, we’re looking forward to the Playoffs.”