Thread Tools

Display Modes

Gardan · 07-10-2008, 03:11 AM

Euroleague has decided to create "indefinite contracts" for sixteen teams. EL has decided not to count blank votes in the polling made this week in his Assambly, so the project has been approved

Spanish teams that will have the "indefinite contract" will be Madrid, Barça and Baskonia. What do you think?

luther · 07-10-2008, 03:25 PM

Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu's press conference transcript:

Quote:

Euroleague Basketball CEO Jordi Bertomeu had a press conference on Wednesday to define the competition's new strategies and future plans, based on the decisions taken in the Euroleague Assembly in Berlin, the day before the 2008-09 Draw. The new proposal is based on sports results in both ULEB competitions, the Euroleague and the Eurocup. The new structure is set to allow a group of 16 teams maximum to have long-term contracts due to its sports results, as well as the possibility for all countries to either get to the Euroleague or have more teams in the competition.

"Good afternoon everybody. The decisions taken and the discussions made in Berlin on Monday are the most important ones since the Euroleague was created in 2000. It means a quality jump forwards in the evolution of our project. A quality jump that allows to say that the 10th edition of the Euroleague, which will take part in the 2009-10 season, will mean the creation of a real European League. The main guideline of this project will be stability. That stability will allow teams to have long-term contracts but at the same time, it is based on sports results. Not only those teams will gain that stability due to its results, but may also lose it because of that. Stability, sports results and the fact that he will an open league, from all points of view. It is an open league in terms of clubs and also in terms of countries. The fact that it becomes an open league for countries is a new fact, as it hasn´t been in place before. Any change that means stability for the clubs may translate into closed leagues, but this is an open league. These three issues - stability, sports results and an open league - define this project and allows us to have the best clubs from the 2009-10 season, as well as the domestic champions in the best leagues in Europe, as well as the champion of our second competition, the Eurocup."

"We will distribute the long-term licenses to a maximum of 16 clubs, what we called License A, that allow clubs to have multi-year contracts. Those contracts will expire when the club is the worst ranked in that group of 16 teams. Each year a team will leave this group and another one will replace it based on its Euroleague or Eurocup results from the previous three years. From that moment, a team will lose its License A and the best team out of the group will replace it, just as in the domestic leagues. Obviously, in a group of 16 teams maximum, having more than one team losing its spot would be excessive. Of course, that team entering that group will be based on sports results in ULEB competitions in the previous three years, too. It is an open, dynamic system bases on sports results in our competitions. That, of course, is a quality jump, very different from the actual model. In terms of countries, all domestic champions in the best leagues in Europe will be able to play. None will be left out. Due to this dynamic system, there will be a ranking of countries to allow those that are not in the Euroleague right now to be there in the future. If all teams and leagues know that if they do well, they may be in the competition or have more teams in the future, that comes with an extra motivation to do well in the Euroleague and the Eurocup. It will not be a closed league and no people will have to call asking this or that. Clubs will have an access to the Euroleague that they don't have right now."

"To make our project big we will need to have clubs with arenas of at least 10,000 seats. It will come with new criteria to distribute its resources. It comes with a concept that I think is very important and that is not easy to explain: the chance that clubs can incorporate their multi-year license as an active value in its accounting. It will make the teams become more solid due to its improved wealth. That means that this active value may be in the market, otherwise this cannot be profitable. And that active may be in the market according to rules already known: authorization from its national league, an accurate market...The Spanish League and the Italian League already did it in the past, even if it was some years ago. It gives stability to the clubs and gives the team an active value to consider. It helps the club, because it can incorporate the license to improve its economic situation. Having the support of the Assembly in such a key project is a matter of satisfaction for everyone working here. We haven't reached this point in a casual way. We are fully aware than European basketball needs to be revitalized. We all have to value the hard work they are doing but it needs to be revitalized. We look at Europe as a whole and it needs to be reactivated. We are open to create a strong, powerful European structure to face challenges that European basketball has in the future. That cannot be done through a creative process. We have travelled all around the continent, talking to federations, leagues, players, coaches, owners all around Europe, asking country by country what the situation was. This structure is the result of the analysis we did based on the information we got, to make a proposal that as solid as possible."

Thread Tools Display Modes

Thread Tools

Display Modes