It is a very embryonic project. No details are known beyond the claim to launch in Europe a new competition under the auspices of the NBA, in collaboration with FIBA. They are not known neither the dates of their start -up, neither the participating teams nor the competition system but the great European clubs know that when the American league draws a plan it usually does it seriously. They already sponsor a league in Australia and another in Africa and intend to do something similar in Europe, as announced by the NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Thursday in New York. Will Barça be in this new competition?
Affirming or denying it is now impossible. But the truth is that the Barcelona team is willing to listen to this proposal from the NBA and anyone who serves “to increase the level of play and basketball business” in Europe, provided that its traditional values are respected. In fact, the Barcelona team, as one of the founding teams of the Euroleague, has the promise of the NBA that they will come to explain in person “the master lines” of the Plan of the American League.
The Blaugrana Club, like Madrid, ends its current link with the Euroleague in 2026
Barça, therefore, is in the expectation that information about it in the coming months. In the same situation are the other Spanish teams of the Euroleague, Real Madrid and Baskonia, and also a great like Fenerbahçe. None of them have signed the agreement of the contract with the Euroleague until 2040, a prolongation with which in summer the current main continental competition wanted to shield himself to what was seen coming. But Barça, Real Madrid, Baskonia and Fenerbahçe end their current link with the Euroleague in 2026, just when it is speculated that the new competition could be launched.
This maneuver to keep waiting allows the teams to have their hands free to throw out one band or on the other based on the proposals made to them and the economic benefits they could obtain. Nobody escapes that they are teams with great tradition in European basketball and that they would be appetizing for the NBA project, in the same way that its departure from the Euroleague would leave it weakened, especially if other powerful, such as Olympiacos, also joined the cause. Anyway, from the Blaugrana club it is confident that in the medium term an entente between NBA, Euroleague and Fiba for the good of European basketball. So that it does not happen as 25 years ago when the break between the Euroleague and the FIBA occurred and for a while two maximum competitions in the continent cohabit. “That is something that would not make any meaning and that we should try to avoid,” sources from the Barcelona club insist.
Barça has the promise of the NBA that they will come to explain in person the details of the plan
This NBA future landing announcement comes after months of many negotiations in the halls (and those that will come), with the Euroleague trying to become stronger economically. This agency recently renewed the sponsorship contract with IMG, which was in force from 2016, until 2036, an entente that seemed to be interpreted as a club’s commitment to remain united. The firm grows the coffers of the Euroleague, before announcing on January 28 a breaker pact: that Abu Dhabi will pay 25 million dollars to house from May 23 to 25 the Final Four of the Euroleague. This was a decision to which they voted against Madrid and Olympiacos.
The NBA and the Euroleague have been talking in a fluid way, with conversations that intensified in the Paris Olympic Games, but the economic positions are very far away today. Before these discrepancies the FIBA appeared and has marked somewhat when becoming the NBA umbrella in Europe. Everything is about to build but what was a latent threat to Euroleague has already been drawn publicly. Conclude months are presented, although this Friday the Euroleague CEO, Paulius Motiejunas, will be conciliatory. In an interview with L’équipe He said: “I do not think that this has been a declaration of war. We are willing to negotiate. The good thing is that everyone is seeing that European basketball has an unprecedented potential.”
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