Rumors were flying during the previous day about the poor financial situation of Lithuanian powerhouse Zalgiris Kaunas. Today, the situation looked even worse, according to several local newspapers. The departure of the four foreign players (Marcus Brown, Willie Deane, Loren Woods, Ratko Varda) was mentioned if the club doesn’t get the necessary funds by tomorrow.
The eventual departure of these four players would mean that Zalgiris could only align nine players due to various injuries, which is below the minimum of 10 guys for a Euroleague game. Subsequent possibilites could eventually go as far as exclusion from the Euroleague.
Later today, Delfi.lt announced that Zalgiris would get 2.5 million litas (about €700,000) from the municipality to overcome the short-term financial problems. All of this has not been officially announced yet. However, the first official news that General Manager Gediminas Navikauskas will step down has been released by the team.
We will have to wait until tomorrow, as Zalgiris is expected to make an official statement about its future by then.
