By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
This latest edition of the report – which covers the 2016-17 basketball season (July 1, 2016-June 30, 2017) – makes the most of the highly-productive and outstanding fusion of FIBA’s data and insight into international transfers and the renowned analytical expertise of the CIES Observatory to showcase the patterns of the international migration of players.
BCL included for the first time!
The league counts among its fundamental pillars the fact of being a truly European club competition and placing the promotion of the continent’s players at its very heart. This is reflected in the implementation across-the-board for the first time in European basketball of a home-grown eligibility rule, i.e. based on where a player was developed.
For the first time, the Basketball Champions League (BCL) is included in the report. The BCL is an innovative 50-50 joint partnership between FIBA and 10 top European leagues; based on a number of fundamentals such as the sporting principles of teams qualifying through their respective national competitions, the nurturing of European
talent, the protection of domestic leagues, bringing coherence, transparency and unity to European club competitions, protecting the integrity of the game and treating all clubs equally to advance common interests.
As an explicit promoter of European basketball, the BCL has more European players at 68.2%, compared to 64.9%
in Euroleague, which has witnessed a decrease from 71%. Euroleague also has 4.25 Americans per team, due to the fact that Euroleague maintains its policy of having no eligibility restrictions for foreign players.
However, the playing time of foreigners and especially US players is high in BCL and similar to Euroleague – although these figures are expected to decrease in the future. The BCL has implemented a rule stating that teams must use at least 5 homegrown players in 11 or 12-players-rosters (starting on the 2017-18 season).
This will develop national players and encourage clubs/leagues retaining their talented players. It is a hope to have more national leagues putting these rules in their domestic competitions in the future.