By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The president of AEK, Makis Aggelopoulos was invited to the Greek TV show “Pick N’ Roll” where, among other things, discussed the club’s decision of joining Eurocup instead of the FIBA Champions League.
“It was a difficult decision”, he said. “I have a very good relationship with both mr. Bauman and mr. Bertomeu. We had to play where the competitiveness is bigger. AEK is a big team and must play in the highest level. It’s not our issue that the… narrative of FIBA didn’t convince us. That’s what I told to mr. Vassilakopoulos (president of the Greek Basketball Federation). What is weird, is that I had some major disagreements with mr. Bertomeu on the matter of closed contracts. He has a plan for the upcoming years, according to which, the teams of the Eurocup Final Four will be qualified in Euroleague. There’s no connection between Champions League and Euroleague and that is why it has no future. Europe can’t support three tournaments.
Aggelopoulos then proceeded to reveal that it was not FIBA, but the Greek Basketball Federation that pressured AEK for its decision. “We were more pressured on the matter of Euroleague and Eurocup from… inside the country, rather than from abroad”, explained the president of the team. “We were constantly in contract with Patrick Baumann and he told us nothing about suspensions. At the same time, the Greek Basketball Federation had an extremely strict behavior, constantly pushing us. Some members of the federation were calling ESAKE (the Greek League) every day, asking them to suspend us from the league.We received pressures. We received an ultimatum of which FIBA didn’t have any knowledge. It was a… local inspiration”.