BarcelonaThe Euroleague is studying an agreement with the United Arab Emirates that aspires to revolutionize the world of basketball. The project includes three disruptive elements: the dispute of the final four in Dubai, the participation of a team from the emirate in the competition or the introduction of Emirates airline as the main sponsor. ASM Global, an Australian company that manages major sports venues and convention centers in Asia, is playing a key role in the negotiations, which began nine months ago.
“I started talking about the Dubai project in February. I had talked about many similar projects, but this one seemed different, much more serious than the ones that had been there before. I encouraged and encouraged them until I left the Euroleague. It’s something disruptive, new. Obviously it will cause some reluctance, but if anything has characterized the organization it’s that new things have been put on the table. Incorporating teams from Dubai or markets with little European tradition is a good opportunity that can bring things. It gives a much more global vision to the league. It’s a project that needs to mature because it’s not easy, but an idea like this I think is interesting, and the Euroleague should to study”, recognized Jordi Bertomeu, ex-CEO of the Euroleague, in statements to What are you playing with! (BE Catalonia).
The great obsession of the Euroleague, which is now led by Dejan Bodiroga and Marshall Glickman, is to increase the financial resources of its clubs, and to do this it considers it key to attack new markets. Representatives of the 13 owner clubs of the Euroleague traveled to Dubai a few weeks ago to learn about the project first hand. The expedition included Josep Cubells, manager responsible for the basketball section of Barça. “I would like to thank Mr. Abdulla Al Naboodah, Chairman and Owner of Dubai Basketball Club, and the representatives of the City of Dubai and ASM Global for hosting the competition and the 13 shareholder clubs at the magnificent Coca-Cola Arena. The the purpose of the visit was to exchange ideas and identify potential opportunities for collaboration. We are of course excited about the potential of EuroLeague Basketball in the UAE, but it is too early to address the details. We are looking forward to continuing the conversation,” argued Marshall Glickman, CEO of the Euroleague.
Two representatives of CSKA Moscow, a club that remains a shareholder in a competition from which their team is excluded, Andrey Vatutin and Natalia Furaeva, were part of the expedition, which visited the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai , a pavilion with a capacity for 17,000 spectators. Investors are willing to spend a lot of money on the Euroleague. Emirates Airline, for example, is considering replacing Turkish Airlines as the main sponsor of the competition. The offer of this airline, which will sponsor the Real Madrid football shirt at least until 2026, is capital, between 40 and 50 million euros per season.
Human Rights Watch is very critical of the country. “The UAE arbitrarily arrests and unjustly imprisons individuals who criticize the authorities. Their families suffer relentless harassment at the hands of the state security apparatus. Emirati laws discriminate against immigrants, women and LGBT individuals. The country denies access to international human rights organizations,” he described in one of his reports.
Barça, in Tel Aviv
Barça resumes the Euroleague this Thursday (8:05 p.m., DAZN) visiting Maccabi’s court. The two teams have accumulated a record of four wins and two losses in the first six days of the competition.
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