By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The debate remains ongoing and everyone agrees that the sports calendar – not only in basketball – is cramped. After all, this is the main point of friction on the debate between FIBA and EuroLeague and once more Ettore Messina tackled the issue.
After being asked about the quality of the game between Milan and Crvena Zvezda, Messina said: “Last year I wrote a public letter asking all parts to sit and find some common ground for a solution. The main point was to find a solution for the schedule, as several players were getting injured and basketball quality was getting worse. Everybody got upset, as I opened a Pandora box. I don’t know what the solution might be, but I hope there’s the will to find some common ground for a solution. The reality speaks about lots of teams playing in domestic leagues, the EuroLeague, the Eurocup, and there are also the national team games. It’s impossible to find dates”.
Messina’s open letter which was published in Eurohoops was his answer to the COVID issues, however, if COVID has taught us anything is that things that were considered huge issues are practically trivial debates.
During the last decade, the games that were needed for a team to win the EuroLeague title changed from a maximum of 23 to a maximum of 41. When FIBA announced officially their plan for the national teams’ windows back in the 2015 Eurobasket in Lille, France, the maximum EuroLeague season had already expanded to 31 games.
With that being said, the expansion plan of the EuroLeague was announced a couple of weeks later in November 2015 when the deal with IMG was revealed and everyone knew that both sides were set on a collision course.
Since then a lot has changed.
FIBA decided in the Basketball Champions League to use much more flexible scheduling counting on quality less than quantity, however the quantity of the EuroLeague games brought via the IMG deal the biggest ever revenues in European basketball, which still are a fraction of the European basketball expenses.
Everyone agrees that this situation is not sustainable and changes are expected sooner than later.
With EuroLeague turning the page while searching for a new CEO and FIBA waiting for gestures of goodwill in the upcoming windows – that practically mean more EuroLeague players competing for their national teams and also changes in the schedule if needed – the Pandora box which Messina mentioned, is opened up for good, and there’s no clear path yet for the future.
Does this mean that either we are heading to a future with only two main European competitions or a new division, as Mozzartsport reports?
There’s no answer yet, while the NBA has practically already expanded in the old continent and that’s another story, which Eurohoops will soon address.