Before challenging Olympiakos (this Friday at 8 p.m.), AS Monaco general manager Oleksiy Yefimov looks back on the start of the season for Roca Team. Without filter, the Ukrainian leader confided in the authorization to play Gaston-Médecin, the future renovation of the room, the management of Mike James or the financial support of the Monegasque government. Maintenance.

This year, you alternate between Betclic Elite and Euroleague with up to three matches per week. It’s a real marathon …
“Of course. Everyone knows it’s a never-ending marathon, that’s why we made the decision to have such a large squad and why we decided to have more than six foreigners in the team. . With such a busy schedule, we need to give each player a rest. Otherwise, the risk of injury is very high. We knew all that before we got involved in this project, that it would be difficult, that the times of rest were going to be courts. But, at the same time, we are trying to reduce travel times by using charter flights (Editor’s note: that ASVEL does not yet use) because I genuinely think we have to go through it to perform on this kind of tight schedule. “

Having 10 foreigners, including 7 Americans, is that proof that you give priority to the Euroleague?
“No, our priority is to be competitive in two competitions at the same time. There is no limit of players in Euroleague and we foreigners that foreign players are first Euroleague players before being domestic championship players. This is why we have decided to expand our overall squad to 15/16 players. “

Isn’t it a problem to manage Betclic Elite matches with this excess?
“There are so many games that no player can complain about not having playing time. Especially since we have a lot of experienced players, they don’t have to play every game, they know the length. and the requirement of a season. In terms of chemistry, I don’t think that’s a problem either. You can take a look at how many injuries each Euroleague team has to deal with… Right now, Brock (Motum) is outside, Leo (Westermann) also, Will (Thomas) is questionable, we do not yet know if he will be able to hold his place against Olympiakos. We have 15, 16 players on paper but in reality it’s always less considering the players unavailable. “

In Monaco, everyone talks about the goal of the playoffs in the Euroleague. But what if ASM doesn’t qualify for the top 8?
“I cannot answer this question today. We have just shown that the Euroleague can be pulled up thanks to Monaco. In Monaco, the organization can benefit from many advantages. For example, the situation with TV rights which has been resolved in Monaco, which is not yet the case in France. This is one example, but there are others. “

“The matches against Barcelona and CSKA Moscow were sold out. For CSKA, we had over 1,000 requests that could not be met. There is huge interest. Before the end of the month, the Monegasque government will present to the Euroleague the hall reconstruction plan for the summer of 2022 with a cumulative capacity that will exceed 5,000 seats. Which means that next season our situation will be much better than this year ”

What exactly is the deal with the Euroleague to continue playing Gaston-Médecin in the second part of the season, after December 31, 2021?
“In the first part of the season, the organization wants to see if there is any additional shortcoming, with the exception of the capacity of the hall, or damage to the image of the competition. For the moment, the Euroleague… ”

Photos: Manuel Vitali (AS Monaco)