By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Euroleague Basketball President and CEO Jordi Bertomeu visited the Lithuanian capital on Wednesday to attend the 7DAYS EuroCup game between Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius and Montakit Fuenlabrada at Siemens Arena.
An hour before the game tipped off. Mr. Bertomeu sat alongside Lietuvos Rytas president Gedvydas Vainauskas to meet the local media.
Bertomeu for the first time spoke on details about the Eurocup situation: “I just want to go back to February when we decided to establish, or to design, what we call the perimeter of the European basketball professional clubs in Europe to define the structure of the competition for the future at the European level. At that time, we met the clubs, and we announced, and we decided and we are working on this action that the future of European basketball clubs should be based on this number of 40 clubs.
Sixteen clubs in the EuroLeague, 24 in the EuroCup is for us the future of European basketball.
Two competitions integrated not only at the sports level, but also integrated on policies, strategies. We have already had a couple of joint meetings with EuroLeague and EuroCup clubs. And this is our intention for the future. And in this group is Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius, which should be there, it’s a very important part of this. Lietuvos Rytas has been a EuroLeague team, has been a EuroCup champion, has been with us from the very beginning. To have this partnership with Lietuvos Rytas and to have Lietuvos Rytas with us now in the EuroCup and probably in the future in the EuroLeague; but to have Lietuvos Rytas in this group of 40 clubs working together for us is important and means that we have in Lithuania the best clubs we can have and we are working to keep this cooperation for the future.
“Unfortunately as you all know, this year we could not have 24 clubs in the EuroCup as a consequence of the threats, of the pressures that the international federation put on our clubs, we decided not to substitute the clubs that could not stay with us. And we decided not to substitute these clubs because we wanted to keep the quality of the competition. That was the main reason, the only reason. So we believe that those are the clubs that give us quality and we don’t want to make the competition weaker by joining clubs that are not at the level, not at the standard of current EuroCup clubs.
“I want to take advantage of this opportunity to express publicly our gratitude to Lietuvos Rytas, because despite the pressure that the clubs suffer from FIBA and the Lithuanian Federation not to play in the EuroCup, they decided to choose their freedom, to decide what they believe, what the club believes is more convenient for the future of the club. And the club decided to stay in the EuroCup. You know the consequence of this decision and at this moment I just want to point out that from our point of view this should be recognized at the European level;
We point to Lietuvos Rytas as an example in many countries and I think that thanks to the effort and example of Lietuvos Rytas in the future no one club will be forced to play in a competition that they don’t want to play, as was unfortunately the case at the beginning of the season.
So thank you Mr. Vainauskas. And I want to reinforce our commitment that from the EuroLeague side, we will keep working with Lietuvos Rytas in the years to come as long as the club wants to stay with us. “
Speaking about the pressures on Lietuvos Rytas and Lietkabelis to not play in Eurocup he added: “First of all our responsibility is to provide quality for the competition. We cannot solve problems in each country, but we help the clubs when they ask us for help. In this case, it has also been the other way around, because Lietuvos Rytas showed its commitment with the Euroleague and with the national teams when Lietuvos Rytas joined us in our case in the Munich court against the international federation. So we have been in cooperation in all these issues in the last month. From the other side, this year together with the EuroLeague clubs and IMG, we allocated resources that theoretically belong to the EuroLeague clubs, but will be allocated for EuroCup clubs in order to help them, let’s say, have an impact in the economy of the clubs, help them reduce the costs of the competition. We managed for the first time in 15 years to have a title sponsor of the EuroCup, so all of those are good news. And I am sure that will help the clubs have a better competition, in this particular case from the economy, because of course our concern is also the budget of the clubs.”
“I don’t see any sports values on that”
So what is the next step in the EuroLeague and FIBA war? “We are not in a war because we have been running competitions for 16 years. And for some reasons FIBA stepped in and said ‘we want to do the same’. I never felt in a war. I don’t know what will happen. I know the results. Back to one year ago, FIBA wanted to convince the EuroLeague clubs to move to FIBA. All the clubs rejected. Afterwards the tried to convince what we call the EuroCup clubs to do the same. All the clubs rejected. The third move was threats to the national teams, as was the case with the Spain and Lithuania teams regarding the Olympic Games. And we went to the court. And we won. The second ruling was of no consequence because it was on proceedings. It was settled that national federations cannot be sanctioned for the reasons that FIBA wanted at that time. After all this, what they managed is to take four teams, to condemn teams to play competitions that they don’t want to play. To condemn teams to play competitions at a very poor level of competition. That is what happened with French teams, with some Italian teams, etc., which we know are not happy. So when someone is talking about sports values and taking about that they have to protect the integrity of the game.
And what they do is threaten the national teams of Spain and Lithuania not to play the Olympics despite the fact that one is European champion and the other runner up, I don’t see any sport values in that.
When the club, as is the case with Lietuvos Rytas, is sanctioned because they are playing in a competition which FIBA doesn’t like, I don’t see any sport values in that. When our referees are under pressure and threats to be disqualified from national competition if they officiate EuroLeague games, I don’t see any sport value in that. This is exactly what has happened. I am not going to deal with this. I am not going to have any conversation based on this. If we can talk about competitions or structure, we offered them shares in our competition, we offered them a different system to integrate the competition, we offered them to fix the issue with the calendar with the national teams. I’ve offered them many things. But now in this environment, with this behavior, there is nothing to talk about. We just wait for what the European Commission decides, but from the other side what we know is that the clubs want to play in the EuroLeague and the EuroCup. Not for us, because we are not important. What is important is that in the EuroLeague and the EuroCup, the clubs are the ones who make the decisions, because the clubs are the owners of the competition. So the only thing is that we have to ensure that the clubs have the freedom to decide what they want to do. And this is our main job. How is it going to finish, what FIBA is doing? I am not the right person to answer this. I just explain what we did for 16 years. Why we had this situation in the last months, which has been the answer from the clubs and what was the reaction from FIBA when they did not manage to convince the clubs and how they forced them, some of them, to play in a competition they did not want. This are not the sports values.”
“My point is why is it accepted that no NBA players will compete”
For the national teams windows, Bertomeu explained the position of the league: “We will never put an obstacle before the players to play in the national team. We never have in the past. My point is, why is it accepted that the national teams are going to play without the NBA players and no one questions this? Which competition are we going to offer the fans at the national team level without the best players on the courts? This is a fraud. This is something unacceptable. But if FIBA wants to deliver this product, it’s FIBA’s responsibility. As the EuroLeague, I understand very well that my responsibility and our responsibility is to deliver the best product possible to our fans. This is our responsibility and we are trying to do our best. I am not saying we do everything right, but this is our purpose, our duty and our mission. But when somebody, in this case FIBA, organizes a completion knowing in advance that the best players will not be on the court… What is the meaning of this? And nothing happened. No sanctions. No threats. Nothing. So is it fair that a player of Lietuvos Rytas decides not to go to the national team for any reason will be sanctioned when a Lithuanian player in the NBA will not be sanctioned? Is it fair? I don’t think so. But it’s what FIBA announced they will do. Again, sport values.”
“I am disappointed”
Bertomeu also talked about his meetings with Lithuanian federation president Arvydas Sabonis and his position in the whole debate: “Last time we met was in Berlin at the Final Four. I have to answer this question based on what I saw. The Lithuanian Basketball Federation did not support the clubs when they wanted to choose the competition they wanted to play. This is what the Lithuanian Federation did. So based on this fact, it’s not an opinion, it’s clear what the Lithuanian Federation did. I am disappointed, but I cannot do anything. I have to respect what the national federation did. If I was in the position of the national federations, probably I would do different. But what is really interesting is to realize that when the Lithuanian National Team were threatened to be sanctioned for the Olympic Games, when the Spanish National Team was offered the same threat, the Spanish Federation did not say anything. I don’t remember the Lithuanian Federation saying anything. But the Euroleague, the clubs, went to the courts, and we got a ruling protecting the national teams – not the clubs, the national teams. We were the ones who protected the national teams. We were the ones who really protected the rights of the Spanish National Team and the Lithuanian National Team to go to the Olympics. We were the ones. So we have to judge according with the facts, not opinions. And those are the facts.”