Euroleague turned to Russia
21.10.2008
Today in Vitoria CSKA CEO Andrei Vatutin and Sports Director Natalia Furaeva participated in Euroleague workgroup meeting which discussed the change in tournament system...
Today in Vitoria CSKA CEO Andrei Vatutin and Sports Director Natalia Furaeva participated in Euroleague workgroup meeting which discussed the change in tournament system...
Andrey Vatutin made a brief summary for our website:
"Comparing to the Assembly meeting in July in Berlin Euroleague showed itself as an organization which flexibly adjusts to the situation and which is ready for the smart change of its standpoint. We did not take any decisions today and we could not take ones because our meeting was just a working debate though it was very representative - 13 heads of biggest clubs and 3 league's heads participated in it. And before taking any decisions during Euroleague General Assembly in December we will meet once again in November for additional discussions. Current situation does not allow us to hurry - we have to carefully discuss and weigh everything. Recently ULEB president Eduardo Portela and Euroleague executive director Jordi Bertomeu split over some problems, and it could lead to harsh consequences up to organizing the tournament alternative to Euroleague. We could not allow this. It is great that Mr.Bertomeu was able to set the compromise.
I can say that today I saw the future of Euroleague, because the specific and detailed filling of July project was opened for us.
The number of participating clubs will stay the same - 24. But the system of distributing the licenses adopted in July will be changed due to the initiative of Bertomeu. There will be 12 or 13 three-year Licenses A. They will be distributed according to the rating which will take into account the results in Euroleague, attendance and TV revenues. CSKA takes the fourth place in current rating which is calculated from the beginning of 2002-03 season - after Maccabi, Barcelona and TAU and just befor the Panathinaikos. From the beginning of 2011-12 season clubs with License A should have the arenas with minimum of 10.000 capacity. The uncertainty with the number of Licenses A is caused by the possibility of limiting the number of elite licenses for one country with 3 places in the tournament.
There will be 8 or 9 Licenses B - depending on the number of Licenses A. They will be valid only for one season and they will be distributed among the representatives of the following countries - Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain and Russia. The condition for arena capacity will be softer - up to 5.000. Second team from Russia will be probably chosen under the sports principles. If CSKA defend the Russian champion title, the License will go to the play-offs finalist. This was Bertomeu proposal and it seems very logical. By the way we asked Jordi to visit Moscow once again for the meeting with Russian clubs, and he promised to come in the near future.
There will be given two or three Licenses C. One of them will go to EuroCup winner and it is still uncertain who will get the other two. There is no place for qualification tournament in European calendar. Though if the number of the licenses will be two, there will be no need in qualification. The second place will probably go to EuroCup finalist.
In preparation for the today's meeting and during it we were in full contact with RBF and it's president Sergey Chernov. Together we stand for the interests of Russian basketball making an accent on the increasing the number of Russian teams in continental top-tournament. In fact we guaranteed two places in Euroleague for the Russian teams and reasonably count on the third license".
Andrey Vatutin made a brief summary for our website:
"Comparing to the Assembly meeting in July in Berlin Euroleague showed itself as an organization which flexibly adjusts to the situation and which is ready for the smart change of its standpoint. We did not take any decisions today and we could not take ones because our meeting was just a working debate though it was very representative - 13 heads of biggest clubs and 3 league's heads participated in it. And before taking any decisions during Euroleague General Assembly in December we will meet once again in November for additional discussions. Current situation does not allow us to hurry - we have to carefully discuss and weigh everything. Recently ULEB president Eduardo Portela and Euroleague executive director Jordi Bertomeu split over some problems, and it could lead to harsh consequences up to organizing the tournament alternative to Euroleague. We could not allow this. It is great that Mr.Bertomeu was able to set the compromise.
I can say that today I saw the future of Euroleague, because the specific and detailed filling of July project was opened for us.
The number of participating clubs will stay the same - 24. But the system of distributing the licenses adopted in July will be changed due to the initiative of Bertomeu. There will be 12 or 13 three-year Licenses A. They will be distributed according to the rating which will take into account the results in Euroleague, attendance and TV revenues. CSKA takes the fourth place in current rating which is calculated from the beginning of 2002-03 season - after Maccabi, Barcelona and TAU and just befor the Panathinaikos. From the beginning of 2011-12 season clubs with License A should have the arenas with minimum of 10.000 capacity. The uncertainty with the number of Licenses A is caused by the possibility of limiting the number of elite licenses for one country with 3 places in the tournament.
There will be 8 or 9 Licenses B - depending on the number of Licenses A. They will be valid only for one season and they will be distributed among the representatives of the following countries - Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain and Russia. The condition for arena capacity will be softer - up to 5.000. Second team from Russia will be probably chosen under the sports principles. If CSKA defend the Russian champion title, the License will go to the play-offs finalist. This was Bertomeu proposal and it seems very logical. By the way we asked Jordi to visit Moscow once again for the meeting with Russian clubs, and he promised to come in the near future.
There will be given two or three Licenses C. One of them will go to EuroCup winner and it is still uncertain who will get the other two. There is no place for qualification tournament in European calendar. Though if the number of the licenses will be two, there will be no need in qualification. The second place will probably go to EuroCup finalist.
In preparation for the today's meeting and during it we were in full contact with RBF and it's president Sergey Chernov. Together we stand for the interests of Russian basketball making an accent on the increasing the number of Russian teams in continental top-tournament. In fact we guaranteed two places in Euroleague for the Russian teams and reasonably count on the third license".
