The historic split program, which was shed by Elijah (which was rejected by Sparopoulos again in the summer), was actually implemented at Olympiakos, which has built two separate rosters this season. Failure on both fronts • David Blatt: "It's undeniable that it hurt them at Euroleague"

• Janis Sparopoulos said goodbye to Spannulis, who meets Elijah

About two years ago Maccabi Tel Aviv's management decided to start a new path and split the club's alumni group. Maccabi A with a number of foreigners to the Euroleague, and Maccabi B who will be based mainly on the youngsters of the Israeli league. Danny Federman, leader of the move, and Roy Gladstone, press officer Of the group, holding background talks with journalists and commentators and passionately explaining that Israeli league rules (mainly Russian law) prevent the Yellows from succeeding in Euroleague. "It's better not to play at all on Sunday than to actually play with two teams each week," it said.

On April 8, Maccabi Tel Aviv convened an unpublished press conference announcing the historic move, which was not baked. The young generation led by Federman Junior wanted to set up two separate systems. The older generation, ie Chairman Shimon Mizrahi and owner David Federman, pulled the group One big 17-16 players and every week 5-4 players will join the club's youngsters for the Premier League and the National Cup.

But when it became clear that the cost of the subsidiary would reach NIS 11 million, and following the big audit from home and abroad, it was decided in August 2018 to shelve the idea. In the summer of 2019, as a result of the Euroleague's expansion to 18 teams, the idea of ​​fragmentation and even partial fragmentation was again raised, but coach Janis Spropoulos was strongly opposed. Resist and justice.

The cast with Janis Bead Eliyahu. Olympics to be the first in Euroleague, which split // Photo: Alan Shaver

On September 18 at the official Maccabi Tel Aviv press conference, Nicolas Wichicz, the Yellows' professional manager, said: "We are monitoring what will happen with Olympiakos this season."

Following the downgrading of the Greek team to the second league after a dispute with the Greek league leaders, Olympiakos decided to be the first in the Euroleague, which officially split the group's staff in two. Senior Euroleague faculty and reserve team appearing in the Second Greek League regardless of the Euroleague group. Currently, Olympiakos fails on both fronts.

Negative balance and nervous audience

The club's reserve team with one stranger alone - Serbian talent Alex Fukowski, a 2.12m coordinator - ranks seventh in the second league and to participate in the senior league playoffs it will have to finish in the top five.

But the real failure is in the Euroleague Olympics. "It's undeniable that the split hurt them in the Euroleague," says David Blatt, who started the season at the club.

The team from Piraeus stands on a negative balance of 14 losses and 11 wins which places it in ninth place when it plays next month in the four-ranked 6-1, tomorrow against the Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Hall. On the balance sheet, a double loss to Zenith (!), Excruciating defeats at the home of Maccabi Tel Aviv and Anadolu, and domestic embarrassment against Alba Berlin.

secretly. "It is undisputed that the split hit them in the Euroleague" // Photo: Alan Shiber

Three coaches have already guided the team this season. Blatt, the Lithuanian Castutis Kamasura who lasted until January, and Euragos Baratocas, who won the Euroleague with the team in 2013, returned to the club but without extraordinary success.

The A-roster of the Greeks was supposed to be no-load compared to the other Euroleague teams, and to come fresher to the rallies, except that in fact the Olympiak roster has not one player who has missed any game. Also, veteran Vasilis Spanolis finished the season, and Yurgus Printesis missed three games.

The red-and-white from Piraeus have already replaced four strangers: Tyler Rochesty, Octavius ​​Ellis, Shaquille of Kissick and Dwight Baekes have been replaced by Cosminskas, Kevin Panther, Will Cherry and Ethan Ham. Willie Reed had time to go. In such a situation, the group often comes with rust and the demanding audience points: Olympiakos ranks only 12th in the number of home game viewers (7,011 on average).

So even on a cloudy day you can see from Tel Aviv that the split in Piraeus is a failure, on the other hand thanks to the Israeli league this year Maccabi Tel Aviv earned Tyler Dorsey and Danny Abadia.