On Thursday, the international basketball federation FIBA announced that T71 Dudelange will compete in the group stage of the women’s EuroCup 2022/23. The current LBBL champion does not have to go through the qualifiers. Head coach Jérôme Altmann is extremely excited but knows that there is a lot of work ahead for his team.
What was your first reaction on Thursday?
I was very happy when we received the confirmation. We received some e-mails by the FIBA over the last weeks that sounded already very positive in favor of a direct qualification and when we finally knew that it worked out, it was pure joy. However, now it is time to go to work, the preparation for the games are already running within our club.
I suppose there will be a lot of necessary organization over the next days, weeks and months.
Absolutely. We already started preparing for the EuroCup some time ago and we immediately saw how many aspects we have to consider in this process. First, there is a big financial aspect, we will have to work with sponsors and see how to shoulder the costs for the whole organization as a club. It starts with things like preparing the gym in Dudelange, looking for the right travel possibilities and hotels and many other things. Once we know our opponents, we will have to decide these things. We will also have people from the club that will represent T71 at the drawing ceremony on July 15th. Second there is the sportive side of the EuroCup. We need to practice and prepare the best way we can for this event, this requires a lot of commitment from our players and staff. We will face a situation like a professional team, but obviously with most players/coaches that have a normal job or study.
Are there teams that you would like to face or countries you would prefer to play?
I look at this competition as a reward for the work we have put in over the last two years. I do not really have a team that I would prefer to play. I can say that there are many teams in this competition that we can beat if we play well. Obviously, there are also very strong opponents that could await, so that we will have to wait for the draw on July 15th.
What are your expectations?
This is the first time that a team participates in the group stage, we are extremely proud about the achievement.
As the current champion of Luxembourg, we want to represent our country and club and try to win games. This is a big opportunity to do some advertising for women sports in our country and we want to use this opportunity. We have played against strong teams from other countries in preparation games over the last two years and we were able to win some games, I think we can enter this competition with a lot of self-confidence.
