Ettore Messina: The rule regarding the assistant coaches should be changed

The head coach of our team Ettore Messina issued the statement on Russian Superleague rule which bans foreign assistant coaches from sitting on the bench during games if the team uses maximum allowed number of foreign players.

“I was surprised to read in Kestutis Kemzura’s interview in Sport-Express that he was invited by David Blatt to take the well-deserved position of the assistant coach of Russian National Team. I understand that the National team and the club teams in the Superleague play under different regulations but at the same time I cannot understand why the job done by foreign assistant coaches in the clubs and the National Team should be treated differently. In my opinion if Russian Basketball Federation considers a possibility of hiring foreign assistant coach for the National Team it should change this strange rule about assistant coaches in Superleague. I am sure that foreign assistant coaches sitting on the bench not in the stands work for the good of the teams and the players with no regard to their nationality.”