By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
The first two “windows” for the national teams’ games are already scheduled between the 20th until the 28th of November 2017 and between the 19th until the 27th of February 2018.
There have been already two meetings of the EuroLeague clubs for this matter and a third one is sheduled for the near future in Barcelona. The question they are facing is if they are going to change the competition schedule, or if they will schedule EuroLeague games during the dates that FIBA wants to occupy for the national teams.
EuroLeague has prepared two calendars for both cases. If the clubs decide to keep two weeks without EuroLeague games in order to comply with FIBA’s calendar, then the 2017-18 EuroLeague season will start on the first week of October and instead of five, there will be seven weeks with double games. Practically that translates to every month of the regular season from October until April including a double games week.
The second option is a calendar that will remain the same with the 2016-17 season, but it will put EuroLeague at odds with FIBA on the matter of the national teams, because there will be EuroLeague games scheduled on the same dates with the FIBA World Cup qualifying games. That’s why EuroLeague is letting the clubs to decide what they are going to do, considering also the fact that the NBA players will be absent from their national teams during the months of November and February.
The decision about next season’s schedule is expected to be final and announced before the EuroLeague Final Four.