The playmaker, silver medalist at the Euro, will not be able to participate in the Olympic Games if he were to play with the Zenith.
The leader Thomas Heurtel will be excluded from the French basketball team “for the next international deadlines, including the 2024 Olympic Games” if he is “brought to play” with Zenith Saint-Petersburg, with whom he is committed , the French Federation (FFBB) announced on Thursday.
Less than 24 hours after the Russian club announced the signing, for a season plus an optional one, of the silver medalist playmaker on Sunday at the Euro (defeat in the final against Spain), the response of the FFBB fell: Heurtel (33 years old, 1.88m) will no longer meet the selection criteria if he wears the colors of Zenith Saint Petersburg.
The federal office of the FFBB indeed decided “on July 28” that French players engaged in Russian or Belarusian clubs would not be “no longer selectable” until the end of the war in Ukraine.
And Heurtel, like all the players selected for the Euro, signed a sworn statement “indicating that he was not engaged and that he did not plan to sign with a Russian or Belarusian club”, added explained the federation in its press release published Thursday.
If ever Heurtel (99 selections) did not lift the optional year provided for in his contract with Zenith Saint Petersburg, the federal office would decide whether or not he becomes selectable again for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, the Federation said. the AFP.
The Federation also indicated in its press release that although it “was informed that Thomas Heurtel had contacts with foreign clubs, including Russian ones, at no time was it informed that a contract had been signed or was in progress. signature course with a Russian club”.
The question of the selection in the France team of players playing with Russian or Belarusian clubs had emerged this summer after the signing of French internationals Livio Jean-Charles (four selections) at CSKA Moscow and Louis Labeyrie (33 caps) in Kazan.
This season, Russian and Belarusian clubs cannot participate in the Euroleague, the most prestigious European competition between clubs, as since the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia had also been excluded from the Euro.
