EFE

April 20, 2021 – 10:01 am

The Football Premier League The path European basketball took more than twenty years ago began with the birth of the Euroleague, a journey amplified by the greater significance and greater economic significance of the beautiful game in Europe.

At the end of the last century, European basketball clubs were not satisfied with the management and economic performance reported by the old European Cup and from the hand of ULEB, the European Leagues, – this may be an important difference -, they set up a new competition outside the umbrella of the International Basketball Federation.

In the 2000-01 season, the Euroleague began to run with the FIBA ​​front confrontation threatening that the players of the participating teams would not be able to play for their national teams in the European, World and Olympic Games. At the time, the clubs negotiated their television contracts individually and the new competition pooled these rights to negotiate jointly, taking home about $ 35 million a year for five years.

The VapeA tried to counter these movements with decades barely half what the new competition had to offer.

So during the 2000-01 season, there were two European leagues, the Euroleague, who scored the name, FIBA, and Suproliga, where teams like Maccabi, CSKA Moscow, Panathinaikos and Efes participated. , Among others.

The duplication of the top European Basketball League lasted only one year. The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) took a step back and in the second edition of the Euroleague all the great European teams have already participated. The next step was with the second European competition, the old Recopa, and then the Saporta Cup. In 2002-2003 Eurocopa was born, under the same Euroleague organization, with the same ideology, more money and more stability for the participating clubs, as the acquired sporting rights for three years prevailed in their domestic competitions.

Over the next decade Euroleague s FIBA They lived a peaceful life, until the latter decided to create the Basketball Champions League in 2015 to bring back the big clubs.

The Euroleague attacked by signing a ten-season contract with IMG of America, in which fixed-place teams, License A, distribute around 36 million euros per year.

Once again, the International Basketball Federation threatened the clubs and players with sanctions, but everything remained in a cold war with the famous “choice windows” between them, in which the Euroleague players did not participate.

The fixed positions of the teams, to achieve ‘stability’, are increasing and now there are 13 teams securing their place in the Euroleague (Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Baskonia, Panathinaikos, Olympiacos, Fenerbahçe, Anadolu Eves, CSKA, Maccabi, Zalgiris, Milan, Bayern Munich, Asfel Villeurbanne) Plus Alba Berlin, who has secured her attendance with an invitation for two years. The European Cup finalists also have a place in the next Euroleague season and the organization has two places by invitation.

The NBA was created in 1949 after the merger of the National Basketball Association and the American Basketball Association. The teams, the franchisees, are the competition and there is no relegation. They always participate. The team could change owners, even cities, but it would still play in the NBA.

The Football Premier League looks at itself in this double mirror, more in the Euroleague mirror, due to its great similarity in sport, but without stopping to watch the NBA, given its great experience in management, organization, creativity, economic resources for marketing, photo and television rights. (Dr)