FIBA RAISE STAKES IN EURO GAMBIT
FIBA are to guarantee Europe’s top clubs €30 million per season if they agree to join their proposed new league.
Talks have been scheduled for Mies on November 3 to further discuss their plans with representatives from leading teams and the Euroleague expected to attend.
It has been revealed the venture would be jointly owned by the governing body, the clubs and outside investors, with commercial and broadcast rights to be pooled – along with revenue sharing and profit sharing.
The model would see 16 teams playing each other in a round-robin league format. The best eight teams will then advance to the play-offs with the aims to ensure the venture would be “stable and consistent in the long term, while offering the opportunity for expansion in future years.â€
There will be eight guaranteed spots among the 16 teams for FC Barcelona (Spain), Real Madrid (Spain), Olympiacos Piraeus (Greece), Panathinaikos Athens (Greece), Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel), CSKA Moscow (Russia), Efes Istanbul (Turkey) and Fenerbahce Istanbul (Turkey).
There will be a further four guaranteed spots for the national league champions of France, Germany, Italy and Lithuania. The remaining four slots will be filled after a qualification round in which teams from 28 national leagues – with at least 23 more national champions – will participate.
The format for the play-offs will be ‘best-of-three game’ series, with the winners going through to the final four knockout stage.
With resistance remaining to giving up their collective independence, there is no guarantee that the Euroleague clubs will accept the deal although league sources say that Olympiacos Piraeus and Panathinaikos Athens have privately expressed their interest in signing up.
“We are very keen to hear their views on our proposed new top club competition and any other topics they might be interested in, given how much FIBA has changed and grown over the past few years,†FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann said. “We look forward to having open and constructive discussions on the future of professional basketball in Europe and are happy to note that national federations and other basketball stakeholders look forward to remodelling the European Club competitions.â€
As part of the move, FIBA Europe is set to relocate from Munich to FIBA’s Swiss headquarters in 2016, officials confirmed.
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