By Bugra Uzar/ info@eurohoops.net
Eurohoops was invited today in the media breakfast with the FIBA Europe president Turgay Demirel and the secretary general Kamil Novak.
A lot of topics were touched, however the most important think is that FIBA confirmed the ongoing talks with Euroleague. As Novak said: “Unfortunately in this case for a long time many rumors circulated and many lies. FIBA had and retains a very clear attitude toward Euroleague. We are negotiating with them, we have submitted our proposals and, as you know, we were very close to reaching an agreement which was torpedoed by the other side. In our last contact, we proposed to Euroleague to keep their competition and give us the second tier, but they wanted 40 teams and two competitions. We can make concenssions but not that. The ECA has a monopoly in the organization of the Euroleague, but our demand to ensure equal treatment between the Champions League and the Eurocup is reasonable and fair. We will be glad if they accept to give to the Champions League winner a spot in the Euroleague”.
FIBA is not willing to let Euroleague keep the status quo in the Eurocup: “What would happen if tomorrow there was an other competition from a third party? We demand respect the regulations and to ensure the equal and fair conditions, which among other things will defend the sports criteria, like in happens in the UEFA Champions League. Perhaps our logic seems old-fashioned, but is defends meritocracy. Based on the logic of the Euroleague, why the Italian clubs would have a motive to figh in the Italian league, after receiving a negative answer about the possible inclusion of a second Italian team in the Euroleague?”
The national teams
However, there’s at least some good news on the matter of the national teams: “We have received an official letter from the Euroleague, in which Jordi Bertomeu stresses that on their part there will be no obstacles in conducting qualifying games of national teams. Even if some players would be absent, those games would relate to the whole country. To invoke again the data of football, why Messi leaves Barcelona to go to Argentina and play?
Jordi Bertomeu also spoke recently about this matter and once again it was confirmed that the NBA players will not be present in the national team games of November and February: “They will not be absent at all times. Certainly they will not be able to play on November and February, but they may be present in September and most of them in June. It is obvious that we can not compete with a league that makes $8 billion a year.”
The Eurocup
FIBA once again denied that they have put any kind of pressure to the clubs which chose to play in the Eurocup, however they confirmed that they expect from the national federations to inform them until the 25th of November what they intend to do with those clubs.
According to FIBA the issue is the following: “We do not tolerate the conflict of interests and the adoption and implementation of unlawful acts and generally illegal policies. To make it clear, once again, we must stress that FIBA does not blackmailed anybody, simply and persistently asks for the rules to be respected”.
The BCL schedule
The sceduling issue of the Basketball Champions League compared to the needs of Euroleague teams is a problem for domestic leagues, since games on Monday can be an issue for BCL clubs. That happened already in Greece and Turkey and FIBA is ready to address it: “Yes that’s an issue and we are looking to solve this problem and protect BCL teams. We have a meeting with the Basketball Champions League clubs in two weeks and we will discuss that”.