A match of the FIBA Basketball Champions League had to be stopped because one of the teams had only one player in court. It was a play-in match to qualify for round of 16 between Hapoel Netanel Holon from Israel and Trapani Shark from Sicily, Italy.
The Italian team, suffering economical difficulties (and even point deductions) from administrative irregularities only fielded five players in the roster, and two of them were homegrown players who had never made their professional debut.
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After five minutes, three players walked off the court, leaving only the trainees in the court. Incredibly, the match continued with Trapani only playing with two players, but when one of them picked his fifth personal foul and was expelled, the match was finally cancelled, ending 38-5 for Hapoel Holon.
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"According to Art. 14.5.4 of the BCL Competition Regulations, a club that loses any game by forfeit or by default in the Play-Ins and the Play-Offs shall lose the series", FIBA said.
Days ago, Trapani Sharks also missed entirely an Italian league match against Virtus Bologna: nobody went and the result was deemed 20-0 to Bologna.
The Basketball Champions League, organised by FIBA Europe, is generally considered the third-tier basketball competition for clubs in Europe, behind the EuroLeague Basketball (privately owned and run, where top clubs like Panathinaikos, Olympiakos, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Fenerbahce play) and its own second-tier competition EuroCup. It has run only since 2016, and was recently won by Unicaja Málaga.