By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos vice president Takis Baltakos spoke to the Greek television station NOVA about the decision of the Greens to sign the 10 year contract with Euroleague.
As he explained for the moment, there was no alternative: “For now, there’s only one competition. We have not seen an other league. If there was something concrete on the table, then maybe we would have a different approach. I am not even sure if there will be two rival leagues next season. We didn’t sign initially on the 10th of November, because we are the biggest club in Europe and we wanted a different kind of contract. We speak about a decade long commitment. It was a huge issue. Panathinaikos was not part of the negotiations with IMG and that’s why we wanted more time. After 20 days and with the danger of not having an other league to play, we took our decision”.
According to Baltakos there was no pressure from both sides for the final decision of Panathinaikos: “Both the Euroleague and FIBA know that they can’t put any pressure to Panathinaikos. If they tried to do something like that, then they would get the opposite of what they expected. Our relationship with the Euroleague is smooth again. This is something both sides wanted, however we don’t want to submit to them. We want to have a position of power in the league”.
As for the financial details, Baltakos considers the main difference between the two proposals the fact that all the big clubs have chosen the Euroleague: “Euroleague matched and even surpassed FIBA’s offer. Ultimately our decision was based on the fact that all the big clubs signed also with Euroleague. If you have a competition between the big clubs, then you will also have sponsors and financial gains. I believe that if FIBA finally makes its own league, they will have a different approach from the past. Still I am sure that there’s a common ground between the two sides and if Euroleague makes a step back and agrees that FIBA is the supreme authority of the sport, then they can work together”.