Nevskoye Vremya | Trifunovic resigns

12.11.2009 In men’s basketball Superleague A the first resignation of a coach has taken place. Yesterday the Serbian mentor of St. Petersburg’s Spartak Aleksandr Trifunovic tendered his resignation which was approved by the management of the club from the banks of the Neva. The preparation of the team to the next away game against Samara’s Krasnye Krylya will be undertaken by Sergey Grishayev and Milan Kotarats, the former assistants of the main coach.
We will remind you that Trifunovic headed Spartak in late July 2009, having signed a one-year contract with the management of St. Petersburg’s club. In the midseason, considering the games for the Kondrashin and Belov Cup and the friendly game against Moscow’s Dynamo, the red-and-whites had, under the guidance of the Serbian expert, five victories and three defeats. In the championship of Russia, however, Spartak started extremely unsuccessfully, losing three games in a row. Despite the credit of trust given to the Serbian expert by Spartak’s President Aleksandr Krasnenkov, due to the unsuccessful results Trifunovic decided to leave the club.
- This is the coach’s personal desire, he was not fired, - Aleksey Karvanen, Spartak’s sports director, told the NV correspondent. – We agreed that we will not comment upon the financial conditions of the contract termination. Now we are holding negotiations with a new mentor. I think that prior to Spartak’ start in the Cup of Europe (November 24 – remark of the author), maybe earlier, we will decide upon the candidacy of the main coach. In any case we will have a coach.
According to Karvanen, now there is a normal, working atmosphere in the team, and the players took Trifunovic’s leaving easy.
- Our basketball players are professionals, they earn money not because somebody trains them, but because they are playing. Now everybody understands that we have nothing left to us except to win Krasnye Krylya, - the sports directors of the team from St. Petersburg summarized.

Nikolay Deryagin