Euroleague clubs delegation meets FIBA with intent to improve unity across European basket

A Euroleague Basketball clubs delegation travelled to Mies, Switzerland on Tuesday to meet with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). During a healthy discussion that covered a number of points, the clubs emphasized their central role for the present and future development of European club competitions.

The delegation, consisting of representatives from Fenerbahce Istanbul, Olympiacos Piraeus, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Real Madrid, shared with FIBA its conviction to continue the historic growth of the Euroleague competition they have experienced during 15 years since the creation of Euroleague Basketball, who were also represented at the meeting by their President and CEO, Jordi Bertomeu, as well as COO Eduard J. Scott.

The four Euroleague A Licence clubs present held the meeting following the letter signed by the eleven A Licence clubs on 8 July 2015 requesting time to study FIBA’s original proposal as well as creating a reduced size committee to represent the clubs and Euroleague Basketball in conversations with FIBA.

The highlights from the meeting were:

- The clubs expressed a common view that basketball has demonstrated enormous growth potential not only in terms of club competitions, but in terms of national team competitions too.

- The clubs thanked FIBA for their time and efforts in presenting an updated proposal for the Euroleague competition, as well as for valuing the efforts that clubs and Euroleague Basketball management had made over the past 15 years.

- The Euroleague Basketball delegation will perform due diligence with the updated proposal, sharing this with the rest of the A Licence clubs in the near future before providing concrete feedback to FIBA.

- The delegation noted that the clubs through their company Euroleague Basketball, have demonstrated their ability to manage club competitions over the past 15 years with increasingly positive results, gaining credibility in the process. Therefore they explained to FIBA that in order to expand on the growth trend in recent years there are alternative models to the one presented by FIBA. These will also achieve the same objectives of cooperation, unity and increase in the basketball business that the clubs and FIBA both desire.

-Euroleague Basketball and its clubs will finalise the project that they have been working on over recent years and present this to FIBA in the coming weeks. The project will achieve clubs goals such as the sporting and commercial growth of the competitions as well as the cooperation of Euroleague Basketball and its clubs with the FIBA family.

The clubs raised a number of open issues that concern professional clubs in order to clarify the wording of FIBA regulations to ensure they comply with EU antitrust and competition laws, as well as to regulate the relationships between clubs and national federations with regards to national team competitions. These include calendar, players insurance and clubs compensation for the release of players for national team duty.