By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
Before anything else this summer, Fenerbahce Ulker has to pay 737.000 euros (135.000 euros to James Gist, 34.000 euros to Gist’s agent, 525.000 euros to Engin Atsur, 11.000 euros to court and 10.000 euros to lawyers) to get the clearance from FIBA, since now they are banned from signing contracts with players who played last season everywhere else, but in Turkey. This is something that Ulker (the main sponsor -still Fenerbahce is the main body) will do, at some point, however it’s also the tip of the iceberg.
Fenerbahce Ulker is in deep financial crisis, as a consequence of what is going on in the football section. Οne important note: in Turkey there is no professional structures in basketball clubs. They function like -let’s say- subsidiaries of the main club (thus the A.S. after each team’s name), which are working like INCs (with the rules of the Incorporated Companies): they put all the money (from the sponsors, from the stakeholders etc) at the same cashier and then they share them to each sport, with football being the one which is getting most of them. And that is why when a chairman speaks about the basketball team, very often uses the term “amateur sport”.
UEFA is the one which holds in their hands Fenerbahce’s fate – club president Aziz Yildirim (photo) will hold a press conference tomorrow to explain the current situation – even in basketball. The best case scenario is that the basketball team will have a budget up to 15 million euros for their next season’s roster and that is why they didn’t even bother to comment on rumors like “Fener wants Vasilis Spanoulis”, after they know really well they cannot reach the numbers they were giving till last summer. Our sources insist that this is the main reason they haven’t completed yet the deal with Dusan Ivkovic. Plus they thought all over again about the 1.5 mil euros they offered to Duda (for each of two seasons they want him to sign) and they aren’t so sure they can afford him. And that was when Jan Tabak got into the picture.
By the way, Yildirim wanted really bad Apler Potuk (a central midfielder from Eskişehirspor) and he offered to his team 6.5 million euros cash, to convince them not to give him to Galatasaray. And now, he has to pay the money…