Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv, the Israeli runners-up that already got an invitation to the Adriatic league for the next season received another invitation this time from the VTB league.
According to rumors in Israel, Maccabi received an invitation from the VTB league to join the league next season, source from Maccabi responded saying “Maccabi considers both offers (Adriatic and VTB league) very seriously.”
The Israeli team and its officials have expressed more than once they’re not happy with the Israeli league for several reasons, among them the Final 4 system which replaced the playoffs and because of which Maccabi lost two championships in the last three years after dominating the league. Another reason is that the foreigners restrictions which now allow 6 foreign players (with 2 Israelis on the floor at any time) might be changed to 5 or even 4 foreigners which could really hurt Maccabi’s efforts in the Euroleague.
Also Maccabi is not happy with the level of competition in the Israeli league as was reminded by coach David Blatt in the beginning of the playoffs series against Caja Laboral where he said it took Maccabi time to get used to the high level of Euroleague competition compared to the Israeli league. Both VTB and Adriatic league could solve this problem as in those competitions Maccabi can find Euroleague teams like CSKA, Khimki Zalgiris and Rytas in VTB and Olimpija Ljubljana, Partizan and Cibona in the Adriatic league.
VTB United League will be expanding next season in any case. However, the priority of league’s management is to bring more high profile teams. Maccabi would boost the popularity of the league due its status in Europe.
There are 12 teams from 8 countries competing in VTB league this season: CSKA Moscow, Khimki, Unics (Russia), Zalgiris, Lietuvos Rytas (Lithuania), Asseco Prokom (Poland), Azovmash, Dnipro (Ukraine), Honka (Finland), Minsk-2006 (Belarus), VEF Riga (Latvia), Kalev (Estonia).
