LKF Cup will have a new holder after it was decided to change the competition’s format. Local giants Zalgiris and Lietuvos Rytas are not taking part in this year’s cup tournament due to a stacked schedule.
Therefore the door is open for other teams to fight for the trophy as they won’t face clear favourites. Rytas and Zalgiris used to meet each other in the LKF Cup final every time they participated in the tournament. In recent years they used to enter the tournament at the semi-final stage.
But due to a large amount of games that the two teams have to play this season (Euroleague, LKL and VTB league) a mutual decision was taken to run the tournament without the top two Lithuanian clubs.
The format of the LKF Cup has also been changed. There final four system will be replaced by a two-leg final with each team playing home once. The home and away game format will be introduced from the quarter-finals on.
“It must be noted that the importance of the national cups changed in Europe. These tournaments used to be very important because they were giving Euroleague rating points. Now the prestige of these tournament has declined in many placed. Winning the King’s Cup in Spain is still a great achievement, though there are all kinds of examples in other countries”, LKF Secretary General Mindaugas Balciunas explained the reasons of the changes.
