[Almost] everyone gets a piece of the cake
The Euroleague Assembly has yesterday – the day before the big draw – approved the proposed future Euroleague format, starting in the upcoming 09/10 season, by a 29 to 1 decision, when at least seven votes against the proposed format were needed in order to reject it. The sole rejection came from the Spanish ACB league, which had issued a statement yesterday, explaining their unwillingness to accept the proposal. Hardly a surprise, considering the new format is a punch in the face for every Spanish club outside the “Big Four” – Barcelona, Real, TAU, Unicaja, as chances for qualification are relatively small for ambitious clubs like Joventut and Pamesa. ACB thinks its strength is not reflected in the assignment of the spots, and they see the partially “closed shop” Euroleague as a danger for their own competition. With the implementation of the new format, ACB’s proposal to assign the four Spanish spots according to the respective current season’s results as well as a three year domestic ranking has been rejected. ACB president Eduardo Portela has been threatening to go to court even if the proposed system was legally implemented by the assembly – which just happened – , as it according to ACB “is discriminatory and creates an unfair competition in signing players, in deals with sponsors and in other basic principles on which any National competition must stand” [Talkbasket].
It is quite remarkable anyway how Jordi Bertomeu and Euroleague has been managing to achieve the necessary majority in the assembly in order to approve the system: Not by working on the format itself and convincing everyone that it is indeed a good system which everyone benefits from, no, he has done it by handing out small presents that might provide benefits for the respective parties in the short-term [read: the 09/10 season], but do not alter the format in the long run. What a coup! A few examples:
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Greek league had originally been against the proposed system, but was won over by the Aris Thessaloniki qualification round wildcard. Remember: It is only a qualification round wildcard. Nobody knows whether or not Aris is going to make it through the two preliminary rounds.
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French LNB, which voted against the proposed system in the first assembly back in February when the system had been rejected, got an additional qualification spot via wildcard. This is a permanent wildcard not just for 09/10, yet it is unlikely a French team will advance through the qualifiers, as the competition looks to be too strong.
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When Nancy threatened to give it a “no”, Euroleague gave the 2010 Final Four to Paris, according to French media, which all of French basketball is going to benefit from. Yesterday, Nancy did not vote against the proposal.
Clearly it remains to be seen whether or not long term promises have been made to those parties, however it seems rather unlikely since two of the wildcards – Khimki Moscow , Aris Thessaloniki and ALBA Berlin – were a product of rather unlikely happenings of this year’s competition: 1) the EuroCup winner qualifying via B-licence [Rytas], and 2) a team not meeting Euroleague requirements [Azovmash]. There is a very good chance there won’t be three wildcards in next year’s competition.
Actually, this is only a surprise for those who dreamt of a “powerful alliance of ACB and HEBA”, or counted up to seven votes against the proposal.
It’s been obvious for quite some time now that it’s only the ACB that’s going to fight the new system. This voting is not actually news, as we already knew it was going to progress like this.
Also, keep in mind that it does look a tiny bit biased that you quote the ACB press release, but not the Euroleague press release, even though the supposed pice of news is about the Euroleague.
by jn
on 08. Jul, 2009
Good luck ACB. I hope that your initiative will succeed.
by W
on 08. Jul, 2009
Of course it is not a surprise after the actions taken by Euroleague to get HEBA and others on their side. I have been writing about those before after all.
As for quoting the Euroleague press release – I linked to it and reproduced the content. There’s not a passage of such signficant statement that I couldn’t put into own words and would have me need linking to it.
As for my own opinion, I tend to write it from time to time. Obviously the new format is a disaster for ACB, everybody can see why. If you don’t, that’s your opinion.
by J.
on 08. Jul, 2009
Yesterday decided the “Euroleague Commercial Assets assembly”. Is that identical with the “General Assembly of Euroleague”? I don’t think so…
by af4e
on 08. Jul, 2009
The last remaining variables were Nancy [pulled over by the Paris F4 decision as French media reports], to a certain extend Panathinaikos due to their feud with EL, and Milano which for unknown reasons pulled back.
by J.
on 08. Jul, 2009
It’s not a matter of having one opinion or the other, it’s just that the news is supposed to be the approval by the Euroleague Commercial Assets Assembly, yet most of the paragraph is devoted to the ACB press release (which is actually not really news either, as it just reiterates their position).
Also, I do not agree that it is such a success by Bertomeu to get the support from “opposing parties”, because those parties (HEBA, Nancy) were never really opposed to the new system as the ACB does, they just wanted some candy. HEBA virtually spelled it out in its open letter, it read like the “paratroopers burn” sketch by the Monty Python.
by jn
on 08. Jul, 2009
But this isn’t a blog that reproduces press releases. With Euroleague presenting the results of their vote yesterday, I don’t see what’s wrong with shortly summarising how it came to this.
The opposing parties all want some candies, ACB included. They want what benefits their league, clearly the four A-licences and rather small chances for other Spanish clubs to qualify is a knock on the competitiveness of ACB. All I pointed out was that some of those parties [like HEBA] obviously seem to be satisfied with having that one year additional spot, while the season after that their benefit is zero. Or, in your words: the candy has been eaten, it’s gone.
by J.
on 08. Jul, 2009