By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
On Saturday at Munich, Germany, the subject of discussion will be the host, or hosts of Eurobasket 2017. However today and tomorrow FIBA is hosting the national federations and the domestic leagues on the matter of the FIBA Champions league.
With Euroleague securing the collaboration of the 11 of the biggest clubs in Europe, FIBA is trying to lure all the teams which are left out. The initial Champions League plan is already abandoned and according to Eurohoops sources, the idea will be to present a league which will be based on qualification via the national leagues and will consists of 24 or 32 teams.
It’s obvious that FIBA’s objective is to create a alliance with the domestic leagues, which are clearly taking a back seat in the Euroleague plan. The new Euroleague format gives three spots in the regular season for domestic league champions and probably eight more for the qualifying round, from which only one team gets to play to the 30 round regular season. The details are expected to be announced soon and the next question is which will be the Euroleague’s reaction.
Euroleague has also met with the main European domestic leagues last week, asking them to decide which leagues will get the three open regular season spots. No answer is given by the leagues to the Euroleague yet.