By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
FIBA have decided to recover what they lost 15 years ago, the best league in the world after the NBA. However, the Euroleague of the modern era has developed its own relationships after many years of collaborating with the top European clubs and especially the biggest brands. Euroleague basketball is ready to rise up again, prepared for any possibility and with its own shield of protection for this mission.
That’s why Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu made a first significant move yesterday by meeting with representatives of the top European clubs in Barcelona. According to Eurohoops sources, all the big clubs answered Bertomeu’s call and fruitful talks were held regarding financial matters. The clubs want more revenue, there is great room for improvement and growth and Bertomeu outlined his specific propositions on the matter.
He also asked all the representatives to present their own demands, or ideas, in order to get everyone on the same page, place it all under discussion, and if they get approved by the majority of the clubs, the Euroleague will turn these ideas into actions, like it has happened many times in the recent past.
In short, Bertomeu did what every club was expecting him to do. He laid out the prospects for new and bigger financial motives and he also proved that he is still open to any suggestions and new collaborations, in order to improve the Euroleague’s product.
At this point every big Euroleague brand (Real Madrid, Barcelona, CSKA Moscow, Olympiakos, Fenerbahce/ Ulker, Anadolu Efes, even Panathinaikos and Maccabi Tel Aviv which are considered to come from the most neutral starting point for discussions with any side) seems to be closer to the posibility of supporting the status quo and work alongside the current administration in order to get more revenues. After the end of the season one more meeting will be held by Euroleague on the same matter.
How could this change? Only if FIBA presents a specific project that guarantees bigger financial motives for the clubs which are, in essence, what makes the Euroleague what it is.
FIBA working via the federations
Today in Geneva it was FIBA’s turn to conduct its own meeting. However, no club was invited, but only the federation of the countries that can influence the top teams and push them towards a new version for the Euroleague under the auspices of FIBA.
FIBA seems to be planning in detail how every club can be pushed towards a new league using the leverage of the local federations. The next step will be to invite the clubs and present them with the new plan. So far there have been many informal meetings with team representatives, but not any official move on the matter.
For the time being the big clubs of Europe – which will practically decide the future of any competition by participating or not – don’t have anything tangible to work with and they don’t know FIBA’s exact plans. Of course they have no idea of the possible financial gains from a move to the “new”, or “alternative” Euroleague.
That can mean two things: 1) FIBA is not yet ready to present a specific plan. That’s why the idea of using next season’s Eurochallenge as a “test platform” for the new Euroleague is floating around. The question is with which teams. 2) There’s a plan in a very advanced stage, which at the moment remains secret and will be presented at the right time and in a way that will take the Euroleague by surprise and thus limit its possible reaction.
It’s obvious that things are now at a very crucial stage and Eurohoops will continue to report every key move made by the two main players on the European basketball chess board.
For the moment it seems that FIBA will have a lot of things to do in order to turn things around, especially when we consider what happened when the Euroleague became a separate organization from FIBA, back in 2001. However, things may change in no time. This is obvious by the stance of the world basketball federation towards the clubs from ex-Yugoslavia which were informed that they have to leave the Adriatic league, or else their national teams may be banned from competing in the 2016 Olympic games. The alternative that FIBA offers is for the Adriatic league to be controlled by the local federations, or else the federations should organize their own “Adriatic league,” which will be under FIBA’s influence and not a close collaborator of the Euroleague, like it is in its current form.