By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
BELGRADE – The first issue at hand was the future of Panathinaikos and according to the EuroLeague CEO, the possibility of Panathinaikos leaving, remains theoretical.
“In Euroleague, there are 11 teams with ten-year contracts and one of them is Panathinaikos. We are talking to Panathinaikos for the new season as we do every year“, Jordi Bertomeu explained in his opening statement. “There are some disciplinary proceedings for the owner but Panathinaikos is a member of Euroleague, and we want Panathinaikos to be in the Euroleague. All teams want Panathinaikos in the Euroleague, but they reject the behavior of the owner. If Dimitris Giannakopoulos wants to talk with us, it’s fine. We want to focus on the teams and we have no indication that Panathinaikos will not play the next year in Euroleague. ”
Asked about the €10 million clause that a club needs to pay in order to leave the Euroleague, Bertomeu added: “It’s not a contract issue. There is a 10-year deal not with me, IMG or the Euroleague but between the 11 clubs. There is an internal agreement and if someone wants to leave, he has to pay this amount And if he does not pay this amount, we will end up in court and the club cannot play somewhere else. Still, it’s a theoretical scenario, because I repeat we have no indication that Panathinaikos will not compete in the Euroleague. We talk about the events and we have no problem with the team, Panathinaikos. Only with the owner, who made these statements about leaving the Euroleague“.
“Dimitris Giannakopoulos was punished for his behavior, but team president Manos Papadopoulos is here in Belgrade with his son and he is watching the Final Four. Thanasis Giannakopoulos made a different statement compared to what the owner of the team said previously. Panathinaikos is a 100% Euroleague team. However, the teams are free to decide. This freedom also characterizes our relationship with the teams concerning FIBA. But in conclusion, we do not see Panathinaikos out of Euroleague“.
The referees’ issue
The second major topic of the discussion with Jordi Bertomeu was refereeing, an issue that also has to do with Dimitris Giannakopoulos’ views. According to Bertomeu, the league also sees the issue: “We are optimistic that we will be able to reduce the mistakes of the referees. We can not avoid them, we will always have them. We have a team of specialists who every week watch all games and report on refereeing. There have been two serious mistakes and these referees were not included in the next games and we can even explain what happened on such occasions. For example, we explained what happened in the Game 4 of the CSKA Moscow vs Khimki Moscow Region series, when we proved that the referees were right on their call. We can communicate better such incidents but doing a video which includes specific plays, then this is manipulation”.
“National leagues are important”
EuroLeague still believes that there’s an added value in the domestic leagues and will continue to co-exist with them. According to Bertomeu: “Only Italy wants to increase the teams in its domestic league to 18, many of the other European teams are thinking of reducing the number of teams, like in Spain and in Germany, but this is clearly a decision of the Italian League. We do not plan to schedule games over the weekend in the near future. We want to expand, but not at the expense of the domestic leagues. We do not want the teams to choose Euroleague or their domestic championship, because their national league is very important“.
Euroleague will have 18 teams from the 2019-20 season with France and Germany having a permanent position. Bertomeu explained: “We want to make our changes slowly, keep each model for at least three years in order not to confuse the fans and to understand the changes. Bayern would be ready to enter Euroleague next season, but the French teams are not ready and this transition period until 2019-20 will help the new team to come to Euroleague and also the Euroleague itself. ”
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv’s decision to have two separate rosters next season, one for the Euroleague and one for the Israeli league, turned heads across Europe, but according to Bertomeu, it’s mainly a local issue: “It’s a complex and very” local “issue. It’s not the “first step”, which is to be followed by the other teams. It is important for us to protect the domestic leagues. Still, several Euroleague teams such as Fenerbahce, Real, CSKA, Barcelona already have 16-17 players in their rosters because the competitions are harder “.
Final Four in Vitoria and the NBA
A constant issue for Europeans is the fact that the NBA has the financial ability to sign virtually any Euroleague player. That’s a reality that does not worry Bertomeu:”We can’t compete with the NBA, they are not our competitors. It does not make sense. We have had a 50% increase in the last year, but the starting point of the two leagues is very different. The NBA is a 50-year league with different laws in a different country and with different financial data. The NBA takes our players, but that was always the case. The number of European players has risen in the NBA, because of the big NBA contracts. Everyone says Doncic will leave, but we do not have time for tears. There will always be new players, No one thought Doncic would be this kind of player three years ago. The game is global“.
At this point, the chairman of the board of Turkish Airlines, İlker Ayci, who was present in the meeting added on a lighter note: “And we had a 29% increase in the number of passengers last year. We follow Euroleague’s growth and many fans of Euroleague are outside Europe.”
Bertomeu was also asked about the choice of bringing the next Final Four to Vitoria. “There are not many hotels and a big airport near the city, but the Basque country is a big market that loves basketball“, said the EuroLeague CEO. “They have organized major events such as the Spanish “Copa del Rey” and we will not always have the Final Four in major capitals. It’s obvious that it’s easier to have a Final Four in Athens, Madrid and Berlin, rather than in Belgrade, Vitoria and Kaunas“.
The EuroLeague Players Association and the Women’s EuroLeague
The last chapter of the talk was about the EuroLeague Players Association and also the possibility of the EuroLeague handling a women’s league.
“We welcome the players association and we believe that this move is one step ahead“, said Bertomeu. “The stars are the players and 59% of the revenue goes to them. We have been communicating with the teams’ captains so far because there was no union, so now this will be to everyone’s benefit“.
Bertomeu was also asked about the fact that during timeouts, there are no microphones on the benches. “The coaches do not feel comfortable because they think they will say something that should not be public and this restriction is the only they asked during all these years“, explained Bertomeu. “We persuaded them that it is for their own good and for their organizations to put the cameras in the locker room and record part of their pre-game speech“.
Finally, there was a question about the possibility of Euroleague organizing the Women’s Euroleague, which currently belongs to FIBA. According to Bertomeu:”In 2004-05 we were asked to take over the Women’s Euroleague, but we felt we were not ready. Because of our relationship with FIBA, it’s not the time to discuss it, but we could help if we were asked to“. Bertomeu then addressed Ayci, asking him about the Women Euroleague project and the chairman of the Turkish Airlines joked: “Whatever he wants, we support it.”
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