By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
According to “As” the position is more than clear. As Soler said bluntly during today’s presentation of Moerman and Seraphin: “The top priority of all our players is the club and not the national team”.
“The law is not the same in all countries”, explained Soler.”There are countries in which the players are forced to play in the national team and in others, there’s no such law. In Spain, they are forced to go if they are called and therefore there’s a problem we have with the Spanish players since they have to follow our Sports Law. We hope that the Spanish Federation, FIBA, and the Euroleague will not leave the burden on the players and the clubs if he or she does not go to the national team. Especially because if they refuse, they can be sanctioned. Still, there is no decision on what will happen when that time comes”.
According to Soler both the players and the clubs can be victims of this situation: “We are aware that there will be pressures from FIBA and Euroleague on players and clubs, so I hope there is a decision on this matter. If there is, we will see which players would be called. We have told to the Federation not to transfer this problem to the players as we defend the interests of our club and we will act accordingly. As a club, we are very clear that we want to have all our players available in all Euroleague games, but we can not keep a player out of his national team. The Spanish Federation knows the position of the Euroleague clubs. The NBA players have the same problem with those of the Euroleague but I do not know if there’s a verbal agreement for them in place. The NBA players will not be called by their federations for the qualification games. If this is done with the NBA players, then the same must be done with EuroLeague players”.