By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
ULEB and the domestic leagues of Europe presented today their position towards the new calendar of the EuroLeague after the expansion to 18 teams.
Per the announcement: On April 8th 2019 ULEB and its member leagues were informed by Euroleague Basketball (ECA) about its calendar changes for the season 2019-2020.
On December 19th 2018 all leagues received a “draft calendar” for the 2019-2020 Euroleague season from ECA that served as the base to plan their respective domestic leagues, as it was in previous years. On March 13th 2019 ECA invited all shareholder leagues for a meeting at its offices in Barcelona. At this meeting ULEB and its member leagues requested ECA for better dialogue and transparency in order to be able to collaborate in a positive way, as can be expected with shareholders. No concrete potential calendar changes were addressed at the meeting, except for the information that the final calendar had to be confirmed by the ECA Board on April 3rd 2019. After this meeting nor ULEB, nor its member leagues were consulted in any way regarding the significant modifications.
These late and impacting calendar changes, including an earlier start and later end of the EuroLeague regular season and postponing the EuroLeague Final 4 by a week compared to previous seasons, make it extremely difficult for the domestic leagues to schedule their 2019-2020 season. National schedules of most leagues had already been finalized, based on arena availabilities, and had been sent out to the respective clubs.
Unfortunately, these late changes are another incident in the relationship between ECA and the domestic leagues that damages the interests of the domestic leagues and European basketball.
It is ULEB’s conviction that all parties can benefit from an integrated and balanced model where local basketball, European basketball, and national team basketball all have their place. ULEB, for the good of basketball, believes in the basic values of the European sports model, based on sporting merits, with an open access pyramid structure.
ULEB and its members expect to be consulted by ECA and its co-shareholders for future decisions that impact the interest of basketball in Europe in general and in the national leagues in particular.