IN THE GAME

As was rumoured in the last days and officially confirmed today, Ukrainian Euroleague preliminaries qualificant Azovmash Mariupol is not able to meet the requirements needed in order to participate in the 09/10 Euroleague campaign. According to the league ranking, Hemofarm of Serbia would technically be the next team to gain the right for a B-licence for the preliminaries, however, Euroleague is preparing a wildcard in place of the Azovmash spot, and the leading candidate is Aris Tessaloniki. Aris, of course, is not on the ranking list having only finished fourth in the Greek league this year, but those who have been following the Euroleague development over the past frew months already know: Hemofarm just became a victim of politics.

A little background: The proposed system has yet to be approved by the Euroleague assembly. The assembly consists of 33 parties: The 24 participants of the running Euroleague season, and the nine domestic/regional [e.g. Adriatic League] leagues they are representing, except for Russian Superleague, which [quite remarkably] is not a member of the ULEB. Instead, ULEB as an organisation has the right to vote. Every party has one vote to use. In the next assembly, quite logically the 24 teams from the 08/09 season would be included, as the 09/10 participants will be determined by the system which has yet to be approved.

In order for the system to be approved, it needs at least 80 percent of all votes, or in other words: 27 out of 33 votes. If there are seven or more parties voting against the opposed system, it isn’t approved. That would leave us with:

• Five clubs from Spain [Real, Barcelona, TAU, Unicaja, Joventut], as well as the ACB. Out of these six parties, ACB and Joventut are known to oppose the system.

• Four clubs from Italy [Siena, AJ Milano, Avellino, Lottomatica], as well as the Serie A. Milano is said to oppose the system.

• Three clubs from Greece [Panathinaikos, Olympiacos, Panionios], as well as HEBA. HEBA has been known so far to oppose the system, Panionios is likely to oppose the 2+1 [two directly qualified, one in the preliminaries] situation for Greek clubs, which is a downgrade from last season, when they had three direct qualifiers. Panathinaikos’ relationship with Euroleague has taken major setbacks in the 08/09 season, so you never know. Of course the A-licence benefits them, but you would expect them to be a consistent participant in any format.

• Three clubs from Adriatic League [Partizan, Cibona, Union Olimpija], as well as the league itself. Since there has been an agreement between Euroleague and the Adriatic League, all four parties are expected to ballot for the proposed system.

• Two clubs from France [Le Mans, Nancy], as well as LNB. Le Mans has probably been won over by their wildcard for the preliminaries, but Nancy will most probably oppose the system, as club president Christian Fia said last month.

• Two clubs from Turkey [Efes, Fenerbahce], as well as TBL. No known issues.

• One club and one league each from Germany [ALBA, BBL], Israel [Maccabi, BSL], and Poland [Prokom, PLK]. Out ot of those six parties, only BSL, which does not have a high standing in the rankings, might give it a no.

• One club [CSKA] from Russia. Judging the words of Andrej Valutin, CSKA seems to have played the role of ambassador for the Russian league a bit, maybe threatening to not give their [CSKA's] vote in case a second Russian club isn’t included. Now that this is the case, Valutin will certainly not vote against the proposed system.

• ULEB. Led by Portela, clearly against the proposed system.

Before Bertomeu approached Greece, there were five dead-sure parties that were going to oppose the system: ACB, HEBA, ULEB, Joventut, Panionios. Add to that – with high probability – Nancy and Milano, and the system would have been disapproved already.

As written, the Greek league is one of the parties that has been opposing the proposed Euroleague system, as we read in ESAKE chef Oikonomidis’ open letter to Jordi Bertomeu in early May this year. This could change with the assignment of the new wildcard to Aris. If HEBA is indeed going to vote for the proposed system as a consequence of the Aris wildcard, Azovmash’s inability to meet Euroleague standards would have come as a blessing in disguise for Bertomeu.

Greece and Russia should be warned though: Their wildcards are nonrecurring, one and done, whereas the system which they might be approving in a few days would run for much longer. If these wildcards are indeed what turns them over, it is completely incomprehensible.

Anyway, one of the hotspots of European basketball, the central Balkans region which always contributes young, talented, interesting, euphoric and overachieving teams to European competitions, are once again being left standing in the rain, while politics and economics are not only invited inside, but also allowed to munch the largest piece of the pie. Bon appetit.