The Basketball Friendship Cup, organised by the Russian Basketball Federation (RFB), has come to its logical conclusion. The tournament was not without scandals, which we will discuss in more detail, but there were actually many positive aspects. The national teams of Russia, Venezuela and Colombia, as well as the youth and senior teams of the Parma basketball club, gave the spectators in Perm genuine emotions.
The tournament started with a rout: Parma defeated the Colombian national team 155:53. It became clear that these were not the same professional players from South America who represent Colombia at international tournaments. RFB President Andrei Kirilenko honestly admitted that this situation disappointed many and that the Colombians did not quite match the level of the Friendship Cup. “We certainly did not want to deceive anyone and bring a team that we would beat by 100 points. This is definitely a force majeure, a failure. In the future we will pay attention to things that no one could think of before,” Kirilenko said.
More on the scandal:
International scandal at a tournament in Russia. Did the national team bring in “masked” basketball players?
This is truly an organizational failure. It is unlikely that anyone can describe the situation with Colombia in any other words. But I am glad that, although it was a large-scale failure, it was the only one. The RFB should draw conclusions from the situation in the age of digital technology, where anyone can cheat and check information several times. The Friendship Cup, if we take the Colombians out of the equation, turned out excellent. For the first time in a long time, the Russian national team received excellent training partners, and Venezuela and Parma can definitely be considered such.
It can be safely considered a plus that the RBF, in difficult times, organized an international tournament that another team was supposed to attend, but it did not work out. Moreover, if we talk about the feasibility of holding matches of the Russian national team, each of the players with whom the “Championship” spoke at the Friendship Cup publicly stated that such tournaments are important and, most importantly, necessary. The coach of our team, Zoran Lukic, supported these thoughts: “This is very important. We may not see the players for a long time, so it is necessary to monitor their physical condition and progress throughout the season. Of course, you can see this through the games: who plays, how, how much playing time they get. But until you personally observe the training process, it is difficult to have a complete picture. It is also important to evaluate young players. Now we have five newcomers who have been invited to the main squad for the first time. We need to understand what level they are at and how they can help the Russian team.”
Friendly match at the Perm tournament
Photo by: RFB
It is impossible not to notice the great atmosphere in the stands of the Molot Stadium. Perm has always been passionate about basketball, and crowds of fans throughout the Friendship Cup supported their team (Parma and Russia) and the spectacular game in general. The tournament hosted the Friends Match, in which leading figures of Russian basketball took part: Andrei Kirilenko, Sergei Kushchenko, Egor Vyaltsev, Svetlana Antipova, Vitaly Fridzon, Natalya Vodopyanova, Alexey Savrasenko, Sergei Monya, Evgeniy Gomelsky, Valery Tikhonenko, Evgeniy Paushutin and Zakhar Pashutin. Famous personalities, together with students of the Ural-Great-Junior and Olympian Sports schools, held a friendly meeting and also donated 500 thousand rubles to charity. For young people, and not only for fans of our favourite game, an autograph session was organised, attended by legends of Russian basketball. Everyone could talk to their idols and take a photo.
The tournament turned out to be of high quality and quite interesting, but not without its flaws, which have already been discussed from all angles. I hope that conclusions will be drawn and that in the future the RBF will delight us with equally good international matches with the participation of the Russian national team.
Interesting facts about the Friendship Cup:
