By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Most European leagues have completed their season and the field is set for the next season in Euroleague after the meeting of the executive Board of Euroleague Commercial Assets. In total 23 teams already know that they will have the chance to shine in Europe’s biggest stage with Crvena Zvezda, Sassari and Alba Berlin being the latest additions.
In total five teams for Spain (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Unicaja and Laboral Kutxa), three from Turkey (Fenerbahce/ Ulker, Galatasaray and Anadolu Efes), two from Greece (Panathinaikos and Olympiacos), two from Russia (CSKA Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod), two from Italy (EA7 Milano and Sassari), two from Lithuania (Zalgiris Kaunas and Neptunas), two from Germany (Bayern Munich and Alba Berlin) and also Cedivita from Croatia, Limoges from France, Turow from Poland and of course the champions, Maccabi Tel Aviv from Israel, have already booked a place in the group phase.
There are three wildcards given, one for the A license which Prokom lost last summer, one for the A license of Siena, as the team is not expected to play not even in Legabasket next season and one because of Cibona’s refusal to play in Euroleague. That’s how Crvena Zvezda, the third best team of ABA Liga, the finalist of BBL Alba Berlin and the semifinalist of Legabasket, Sassari, got a place directly in the regular season.
The teams of the qualifying round are ASVEL and Strasbourg from France, Nymburk from Czech Republic, Hapoel Jerusalem from Israel, Levski Sofia from Bulgaria, Zielona Gora from Poland, Ostend from Belgium and Unics Kazan from Russia. ASVEL, Hapoel and also Unics are also considered wildcards.
The board reviewed also the plans for a new model of allocating B licenses, which will be used from the 2015-16 season in collaboration with the domestic leagues. Of course, once more the growth of the league was evident with an increase in net revenues of 8.7% as compared to the previous season. That means an 11,5% raise in the money which was distributed to the clubs.