The official statement comes as no great surprise to BallinEurope, since we discussed the problems at CSKA women’s basketball team a few days ago. As basketcentral and the official CSKA website just informed, CSKA will drop out of Euroleague play.
It was said that even the CSKA men’s team tried to help out the women’s team financially to augment assistance from the Russian federation, which was trying to find new sponsors for CSKA, but player contracts have been just too much. Don’t forget that CSKA signed Becky Hammon, who has a Russian passport, for two years with a €1 million contract. Besides Hammon, there are also WNBA stars such as Katie Douglas, Janel McCarville, Ann Wauters and Edwige Lawson.
Compared to men’s basketball, this is as big a blow as if the men’s team of CSKA pulled out of the Euroleague: A pretty huge deal!
