By Nikos Varlas
Less that a week ago, the boss of Bilbao Basket, Gorka Arrinda, expressed publicly his discontent about the four Euroleague A licenses in Spain, that cripples the chances of participation in the Euroleague for every other Spanish team. He argued that it was unfair for his team to be in the awkward position of not knowing if it will play in next year’s Euroleague, even thought Bilbao has reached the quarter finals and in the same time Unicaja Malaga, Caja Laboral and Real Madrid are already out of the competition!
Yesterday, in the 24th day of the ACB, Arrinda got one more argument for his grumbling, that is also the position of every official of the Spanish – best European domestic – league. Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu is hoping that the brand name of the his league will grow next season, he has big plans, but also one big enemy inside the Spanish gates.
The four Spanish teams with a Euroleague A license lost their games this weekend! Barcelona didn’t make it after two overtimes and was defeated by Gran Canaria (93-90), Valencia embarrassed Real Madrid (83-66), Lagun Aro won the game against Caja Laboral (81-73) and finally Unicaja Malaga lost at home by getting a lesson from Estundiantes (74-67).
So, maybe the other Spaniards are not wrong. It seams absurd that the best domestic league in Europe cannot send every year its best teams to the Euroleague, because there are four “locked” spots, and only if one team against the odds reaches the finals of ACB – something that Bilbao did last year – will have the chance to participate. The first roadblock to the new Euroleague plan is a big NO from the ACB to the idea of scheduling its games on Mondays. This move prevents the Spanish teams from playing Euroleague games on Fridays and as it seems, this will not be the only skirmish between the two leagues…