IN THE GAME

While discussions concerning the look of next season’s Euroleague are still going on – most recently, Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu revealed [as Ballineurope.com reported] in French sports paper L’Equipe that ASVEL Villeurbanne will be awarded a wildcard for the qualification phase – here is a little overview of what we know as of today, three days before the EuroCup final in Torino, which will determine the one single team to get a C-Licence – meaning direct qualification – for next season.

Firstly, there will be thirteen A-Licences, handed out to the teams based on – according to Euroleague.net – 60 percent sports results [since the 2002/03 season], 30 percent TV income generated in the respective club’s market, and 10 percent arena attendance. Those A-Licences have a length of three years.

Secondly, there will be a one year C-Licence for the EuroCup winner, making it 14 teams with either A- or C-Licences.

Thirdly and most complicatedly, there will be one year B-Licences given according to a European league ranking and several rules. Here is what the system is going to look like, in case there won’t be further changes:

In addition to the 14 participants already determined through A- and C-Licences, there will be 8 direct qualification spots and 2 additional spots, which teams can reach via winning one of the two qualification rounds, which will have four teams each. This is where the ranking comes into play. The ranking starts with the Spanish champion, however if a team having an A-Licence already wins the ACB championship, the right to get a B-Licence will be passed on to the following country, in this case, Italy. This procedure will be repeated in every single one of those cases, if an A-Licence team is finishing on a team that would secure a B-Licence spot.

This leaves us with two countries, whose champions will have guaranteed spots, as there is no A-Licence team in those countries that might finish on that spot: France and Serbia. Even if in all countries ahead of those two in the rankings a non-A-licenced team finishes first, the national champion from both countries [in Serbia's case, we still have to get to know how that fits with the Adrialeague] will still be among the 22 teams directly qualified, as there are 14 teams determined by A- and C-Licences, and both Serbia and France are among the top 8 in the league ranking.

All other B-Licences depend on the results in the domestic leagues’ playoffs. We will keep an eye on that.

Edit: Included the new EuroCup winner, Rytas.
Edit2: See comment #8.
Edit3: B-licence situation here.