By Lefteris Moutis
The fire was smoldering for a long time … Valencia (like Bilbao) complains about the way the Spanish seats are shared in Euroleague stressing that according to their opinion Euroleague doesn’t decide based on “results criteria”. The four A licenses are given to FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Caja Laboral and Unicaja and the dreams of the others are limited.
However, Valencia had a chance to play in Euroleague next season by winning Eurocup in the final against Khimki. But the suspicion was so huge that Victor Claver expressed his fears about the referees before the game. Immediately after the match, his path was followed by Velimir Perasovic and the general manager Paco Raga (“a team had to win and that was Khimki”).
But the fans of Valencia didn’t even expect the end of the Eurocup Final to express their dissatisfaction to Jordi Bertomeu. The CEO of Euroleague was at halftime close to them due to a television interview and heard a very strong disapproval by them.
Paco Raga kept his aggressive style and said in mixed zone: “The system of guaranteed contracts is unfair” attacking Jordi Bertomeu. In the same spirit the president Vicente Sola made new statements in the newspaper «Las Provincias» stressing that his goal for Spain is to have only two A licenses and the rest Spanish seats to be covered according to league results.
Bertomeu… picked up the glove and answered by saying that “sometimes fans react like this because they have been informed in wrong way by the teams that want to cover their mistakes. Valencia complains without reason. The seats in Euroleague are selected always by “results criteria”. They never lost their seat, while they deserved it”. He also admitted that if Unicaja will be not play in playoffs, the empty seat will be covered either by a team of ACB or not.
Meantime, Spartak St. Petersburg informed through the official website that Jordi Bertomeu visited the new under construction court of the team, Krestovsky Arena, which is a prospect for a future participation in Euroleague…