Ioannis Sfairopoulos, the head coach of Crvena Zvezda, expressed his happiness at coaching a prestigious club in a country like Serbia.
Ioannis Sfairopoulos said was speaking to the Israeli outlet Israelhayom.com before the game against his former team Maccabi Tel Aviv in the 16th round of the EuroLeague.
It’s been almost two years since he was dismissed from Maccabi Tel Aviv. For two years, Ioannis Sfariopoulos remained silent, refusing interviews despite numerous requests from Israeli journalists. For about a year and a half, he stayed at home, turning down many offers that came my way. At the end of October he was appointed as a new head coach of Crvena Zvezda.
This weekend, before the first game against the yellow team since his dismissal, he agreed to an interview and answered all questions, even those he might not have liked.
“I had several offers, but after my time with Maccabi, I wanted to rest, clear my head, and recharge my batteries. I wanted to spend more time with my family. As soon as the offer from Crvena Zvezda arrived, I realized it was the right moment to return, and today, I am happy to be the coach of a great club representing a basketball country.”
Last summer, you went to Spain to meet with Baskonia and to Turkey to meet with Anadolu Efes. Why didn’t it work out?
“Sometimes things don’t happen for various reasons. I don’t think now is the right time to talk about exactly what happened. The most important thing is that I am satisfied with where I am and doing my best for the team’s success.”
Throughout your time at Maccabi, there were no successful results. How do you summarize that?
“In the first season, we changed the atmosphere in the club, reclaimed the title of Israeli champions, and made it to the playoffs in the EuroLeague. In the second season, after several years, we returned to the playoffs and had a good team, but then the virus came, preventing us from playing in the playoffs.
The coronavirus affected us deeply in the two subsequent years. In the season after the virus, we played without fans, which harmed us in two ways: first, because Maccabi fans are an essential part of the team’s success and weren’t there to support us, and second, because we played with less than 40% of the budget since Maccabi wasn’t selling tickets, making it challenging to compete in the EuroLeague.
Even in my fourth season, the budget was 40% lower because we had to comply with government rules for supporting sports teams, making it difficult for us to meet the high standards of the EuroLeague as we wanted,” said Sfairopoulos.