By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
A two-day meeting between the EuroLeague shareholders did not result in any decisions, but an important issue needs to be discussed soon.
The EuroLeague presented its expansion plan, which will bring the competition to 20 teams. This already creates a crossroads.
Either the EuroLeague will not change its format, which means a total of 38 rounds and nine double weeks, plus tipoff for next season just a week after the end of the Eurobasket if there’s approval for the upcoming 2025-26 season, or there will be a big change in the numbers of games in the season.
The alternative is a format with two conferences of 10 teams each, with all of them playing 18 games against the opponents of the same conference and one game with each team from the other conference, half of them at home and half of them away, for a total of 28 games, while the number of double weeks dropping to four. This is a much more manageable schedule, however with fewer home games which means also less revenue in many cases.
Other than that, the EuroLeague clubs talked again about the NBA plans in Europe and the possible sale of an ownership share to BC partners. Also, Maccabi asked for the second time for the EuroLeague games to return to Tel Aviv.
This demand was denied by the rest of the league with clubs like Panathinaikos and Bayern expressing their doubts about the whole situation in Israel.
It also has to be noted that the Israeli national team of football will host Estonia for the European qualifiers of football on the 22nd of March in Debrecen, Hungary.