By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
We still don’t know yet which teams exactly will play in next season’s Euroleague, but as it was said today in Istanbul, four wildcards will be given to the teams which fit both sports and financial criteria.
The teams which already know that they will play next season in the competition are those who have an A license (CSKA Moscow, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Olympiacos, Maccabi T.A., Panathinaikos, Anadolu Efes, Unicaja Malaga, Fenerbahce/ Ulker, Laboral Kutxa, Zalgiris Kaunas, EA7 Milano) and of course Khimki which has won the Eurocup. Seven more spots are expected to be given to B license teams, according to their domestic leagues results – two of them are going to be Crvena Zvezda and Cedevita – and four more will be added via wildcards.
As it’s already announced there will be no qualifying round and after what happened this year with Galatasaray, the financial aspect for its club will be crucial. As Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu explained to Eurohoops: “What happened with Galatasaray this year really bothered us. The problem was that the financial issues of the club affected also the situation on the court in the Top16 group. We will not allow something like this to happen again. If a club doesn’t have the proper resources, then it can’t play in Euroleague, like it happened with last season’s Adriatic league champions Cibona”.
So don’t expect to see Galatasaray in Euroleague next season, unless they can prove that they have financial stability. There’s also a tricky situation in Turkey because the league is not considered typically professional and it’s still controlled by the federation. That was the reason TBL was the only league which didn’t sign the letter send to FIBA about the concerns for the new calendar. That’s why at this point only Anadolu Efes and Fenerbahce are considered a lock from Turkey in Euroleague next year. It’s possible that one of the wildcards will be also given to a Turkish club, however this decision is not tied exclusively to sports criteria and that probably makes a wealthy club like Dogus Darussafaka a main candidate.