Galatasaray is in, Nizhny almost

By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net

Galatasaray tried to get an A Licence this season, after the meeting in Milan their hopes are diminished, however it’s a given at this point that the Turkish club will be among the teams playing in the upcoming Euroleague and also Nizhny Novgorod is a solid candidate.

The official team list of Euroleague’s 2014-15 season will be completed when most of the top domestic leagues in Europe have concluded, however we already have a pretty good idea of the situation.

Here’s the list of clubs with an A license:

EA7 Milano has also an A license which expires on June 2014, however it’s already renewed, specially as Siena due to its off court troubles may miss its license.

Add to this list also Valencia, which gained a C license by winning the Eurocup and we have a total of 14, which already have the right to play next season in the league.  And here’s Euroleague’s country ranking from which the teams with a B license will be chosen in order to play in Euroleague (provided they don’t have already a A or C license).

This list already includes four teams which have an A license (CSKA Moscow, Fenerbahce, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos) . Zalgiris which also has an A license, has a 3-2 lead in the finals and may end up getting also the top spot of its domestic league. Cibona may forfeit the right to play in Euroleague due to financial issues. And of course the A licensed teams in this list are expected to increase. For example in Spain the four semifinal teams have qualified to Euroleague (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Unicaja and Valencia with its C licence), and in Italy there’s Milano and Siena in the semifinals.

What this practically means? Galatasaray, Cibona, Cedevita, the champions of Italy, Germany, France and Poland and the Italian runner up are already in the group stages along with the A and C licensed teams. The situation with Nizhny is a bit tricky. In theory PBL results should be also taken into account, but there’s no PBL anymore. So despite no official confirmation yet, we consider them to be also a part of Euroleague group stages. Unics Kazan has already taken a wildcard for the qualifying round as the best VTB team without  an A or B licence.

In total the 12 A licensed teams, Eurocup winner Valencia, EA7 Milano, Cibona, Cedevita, Nizhny, Galatasaray, four domestic league champions (Italy, Germany, France, Poland), the Italian runner up and the winner of the qualifying round create a core of 22 to 24 teams, depending on EA7 Milano and Siena getting to the Italian league finals . Two more positions can be open and the next on the line according to Euroleague’s domestic league ranking are the Lithuanian runner up, the French runner up, the German runner up, Crvena Zvezda, Budivelnyk and Nymburk. Euroleague has also the right  to attribute wild cards when needed. In case of a team denying the right to play in the league, its license will turn into a wildcard. Also if Valencia gets to the ACB league finals, then the club will get a B license and its C license will became a wildcard.

UPDATE: Euroleague announced the official alocation criteria, already adding EA7 Milano as a A license team and confirming the report of “El Mundo Deportivo” about the danger for Laboral Kutxa of losing its A license if Valencia gets to Liga Endesa finals. What’s interesting is that without excluding yet Siena, Euroleague announced that there’s an open A license. As we reported in the past, Galatasaray is making a great push for getting it.