EuroLeague Basketball ready to design its future. As anticipated a Sports world and Sportando, the second half of March will be decisive for setting the Roadmap of the New Era Act II. And the Italian clubs are obviously very interested.
New Era Act I
2016 is a zero year for European basketball. FIBA reforms international competitions and, breaking an unwritten agreement with the EuroLeague, “invades” the club calendar inserting the so-called “Fiba Windows”or pairs of commitments for national teams in winter and spring.
A real offensive, which he sees at the helm Patrick Baumann, general secretary of FIBA who died prematurely on October 13, 2018.
In fact, FIBA does not stop there. The Basketball Champions League was born with the intention of replacing EuroLeague Basketball. The competition’s roster would be split between the winners of the continental national championships and some multi-year licensed clubs. Among these Barcelona, Real Madrid, Maccabi Tel Aviv, CSKA and Zalgiris. There are no Italian teams.
However, EuroLeague Basketball already has its card ready: 11 clubs (Efes, Baskonia, Barcellona, Fenerbahce, Maccabi, Olimpia Milano, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Real Madrid, Cska e Zalgiris Kaunas) sign a multi-year license with the competition. All supported by the millions of IMG, which with a ten-year contract will take care of the commercial development of the event.
All that remains for the BCL is to become the second/third continental competition, EuroLeague transforms into a single group championship with 16 teams, then 18, with two-legged matches, playoffs and the Final Four.
New Era Act II
The first shock comes in 2022. The EuroLeague Board, openly dissatisfied with the commercial growth of the competition, closes the era of CEO Jordi Bertomeuat the helm of the competition since its original creation at the turn of the new millennium.
The structure has a new face: Dejan Bodiroga president, Marshall Glickman, professional who grew up between the EuroLeague and the NBA, CEO. Meanwhile, the licenses have grown: from 11 to 13, including Asvel and Bayern Munich, with Alba Berlin having a two-year contract expiring in 2023.
But, of course, if Act II is to be, there’s a lot more at stake. And Sportando tries to reconstruct everything for you, analyzing collected rumors and editorial products already published on the net.
Dubai comes forwardi.e. the Dubai Basketball Club of Abdullah All Nabbodah, also chairman of the Al Ahli football board. Behind him the money of a country that is now the largest investor in European sport.
The offer is 150 million euros for six years, the sponsorship of the competition from 2025 (when the agreement with Turkish Airlines expires) with Fly Emirates, the organization of two Final Four (2025 and 2029) and above all a team in the competition . This is certified by Mundo Deportivo.
As Sportando revealed months ago, the latter aspect is the most controversial. Part of the board has two doubts: abandoning the historic European arenas to explore new markets, granting a license in an already crowded roster.
Because Dubai, in fact, wants the license immediately, from the 2023-2024 season. Months of discussions and negotiations followed. The new investors illustrate a plan to revitalize EuroLeague Basketball using the example of other events, such as the Golf Tour.
The business theme undoubtedly shortens the distances between the parties, the confrontation on the competition roster remains, which, moreover, is the one that most interests the fans. Not forgetting one point: the pressure from the national federations to harmonize the calendar, with FIBA always ready to play its card when a real state of crisis opens up.
That state of crisis that EuroLeague Basketball, and the board, want to avoid unleashing with their own hands. The games must remain 34, if not less, but alongside Dubai’s candidacy we cannot forget the first mission of the CEO Marshall Glickman to broaden the base of EuroLeague Basketball.
Translation, London and Paris. With a multi-year license immediately, from the summer of 2023, in a league that would however remain at 18 for one last season. Today Paris Basketball and London Lions are two EuroCup realities, both in the running for a place in the playoffs. Tomorrow they could tread the EuroLeague fields, even if at the moment they don’t occupy the main arenas of the two capitals.
And Dubai? Also playing on the fields from 2024-2025, in what would progressively become a 24-team competition, divided into two conferences of 12, with round-trip matches between the teams of the same grouping, straight match with the other’s 12. In all 34 regular season games.
This is if the Glickmann plan, London and Paris immediately at stake, should pass. Otherwise the step, told by Mundo, would be more progressive: Paris, Lions and Dubai from 2024 in a 20-team league, 22 in 2026 and 24 in 2028.
And at FIBA? Diplomacy, confrontation, and the disappearance of the EuroCup, with the BCL becoming the second continental competitionand, open to national champions and with two fixed promotions in the EuroLeague.
In all of this… and Virtus Bologna?
It is the question that fans rightly ask themselves. Let’s do the math before giving an answer.
As mentioned, EuroLeague 2023-2024 could remain at 18 teams. We have 13 multi-year licenses, but today it is difficult to think of a reinstatement of the CSKA given the ongoing war events, which sanctioned the exclusion last summer.
So 12, and there is the Alba question to be resolved. The two-year license is about to expire, and the project at the time had to be to stabilize it for the future. It goes up to 13, just in case.
Then we have the two C licenses, destined for the EuroCup. That is the winner of the second continental competition, and credibly Monaco, who for the second year in a row will confirm their presence in the playoffs, to date with a better ranking than Virtus: and we are at 15.
Three places remain, one to date has gone to the Aba-Liga, which this year is represented by two teams. And we are at 16. Two wild cards remain, with Partizan, Valencia and Virtus Bologna in play, at least talking about the current roster of the competition. But, as mentioned, there would be Paris Basketball and London Lions.
Conclusions
Everything will be decided in the second half of March. Every discourse remains open. Our article is a snapshot of the moment, without certain anticipations of the future.
Dubai, Paris, London, Virtus, Alba Berlin. Many actors involved, with their legitimate ambitions. And in the background, always FIBA and that never-clear-specified dialogue with the NBA.