By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos is the only team which hasn’t sign yet the 10 year contract offered by Euroleague and a main candidate to join FIBA’s Champions League. With two rival leagues ready to be held in the 2016-17 season, the Greeks have a key role on how things will end up and at this point they are close to signing with Euroleague.
Panathinaikos traditionally has good relations with the Greek basketball federation and also with FIBA. It was one of the marquee teams of the Suproleague – alongside Maccabi Tel Aviv which has already signed with Euroleague – back in the 2000-01 season when we had also two rival leagues in Europe, one organized by Euroleague and Suproleague under FIBA.
Panathinaikos, a team with 6 Euroleague titles and a perennial title contender is the only club left that can bring some legitimacy to Champions League in order for it to be considered a top league. The other options for FIBA are teams which are usually Top16 material, like Unicaja Malaga and Galatasaray, or ambitious powers in the making like Khimki, Lokomotiv Kuban and Dogus Darussafaka – assuming of course that some of them will not end up one way or an other in Euroleague.
There’s no final decision yet, however according to Eurohoops sources the Greens are more than near into signing the deal offered by Euroleague. If this is the case, then the FIBA Champions League simply will not have any of the big clubs of Europe to lean on…