By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
While there’s no comparison with the EuroLeague – no matter what the president of AEK Makis Aggelopoulos is saying – the Basketball Champions League can make a case, compared to the EuroCup.
And while ultimately the EuroCup should be considered the second tier competition, Basketball Champions League is a close third and both the improvement of the competition and the spectacular image of the Final Four can’t be denied.
Furthermore, considering the fact that FIBA is inviting teams according to their domestic league standings, the average ranking of the teams from major basketball countries, who were part at least of two continental competitions, is the 4th position for the Basketball Champions League and the 5th for the EuroCup. Take a look at the following table.
|
EUROLEAGUE |
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE |
EUROCUP |
|
|
TURKEY |
1,3 |
2,5,7 |
4.6.8 |
|
FRANCE |
– |
1,2,3 |
6,8,10 |
|
ITALY |
3 |
1,4,5 |
2,6,11 |
|
GREECE |
1,2 |
3,4,5 |
– |
|
GERMANY |
1 |
2,4 |
3,5,6 |
|
SPAIN |
1,2,3,4,6 |
5,9 |
7,8,10 |
|
LITHUANIA |
1 |
4 |
2,3 |
|
ISRAEL |
3 |
5 |
1 |
|
RUSSIA |
1,2 |
6 |
3,4,5 |
|
SERBIA |
1 |
– |
3 |
|
TEAMS |
16 |
19/24* |
22/24** |
|
AVERAGE POSITION IN THEIR DOMESTIC LEAGUE |
2.2 |
4 |
5.5 |
|
* Teams from Belgium, Czech Republic, Poland, Latvia and Slovenia not included |
|||
|
** Teams from Croatia and Montenegro not included |
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As you can see in the table only in Lithuania and Russia the ranking of the continental leagues is totally clear with the top teams of the domestic league playing in the EuroLeague, the next best teams in the standings being part of the EuroCup and the rest of the teams that qualified for European competitions playing in the Basketball Champions League.
In total, including the qualification rounds, 66 teams competed in the Basketball Champions League with 21 of them being champions in their countries.
On the other hand, clubs which were part of the EuroCup no matter their domestic league standings, are much more established in recent years and many of them have recent EuroLeague experience.
It also has to be noted that Slovenia was the only region from ex-Yugoslavia that competed in the regular season of the Basketball Champions League, while no team from Greece played in the EuroCup.
Even with those data, it’s not easy to draw a safe conclusion neither about the exact progress of the Basketball Champions League or about its future.
And in the end, since this is a matter of professional sports, the financial data and the revenues of each club from the continental competition will be the deciding factor for the future. And at this point, the best case scenario for both the EuroCup and the Basketball Champions League is for the teams to get back the expenses they made for competing in them and not their roster budget.