Looking back on the year 2022, FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis confirmed having met with new Euroleague President Dejan Bodiroga. He admitted that no significant progress has taken place, for the moment, in the FIBA – Euroleague talks.
On Monday, FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis held his annual video press conference. As often, questions from journalists quickly focused on the issue of relations between FIBA and Euroleague, and more particularly with the latter’s new management. The Greek executive of the international federation confirmed that it had met the new president of the Euroleague, Dejan Bodiroga, without noting any major progress.
« I can confirm that we have met. It was a good meeting, but at this stage we haven’t made any progress. The ambiance is good. We also have the feeling that FIBA is open to discussion but we have been making efforts alone for 18 months. We included the NBA in the discussion, we changed the November window dates to accommodate national teams and players. However, on the other side, we only saw a few rescheduled matches. We are happy with these changes and I would like to thank everyone who made them possible. At the moment, within the Euroleague, there is a clear majority and a minority in the decision-making process. We don’t expect anything to change for the upcoming February window. We’ve included everyone involved in our meetings, including the NBA, and we’re still looking forward to progress.”he slipped.
FIBA is thus dependent on unity within the Euroleague itself, without which it will not be able to provide a concrete response to current problems, particularly in terms of the calendar.
“What we need is alignment in strategic objectives. So we have to find out what these elite clubs want and see if it’s compatible with what the other hundreds and thousands of clubs, leagues and federations want. I’m sure the new Euroleague management is trying to figure out what these clubs that own the ECA want to do. The second step is to see how these plans are compatible with what we want to do. However, for very important matters like timing, there must be a minimum agreement and that is easy. There could for example be matches on Tuesday and then have window openings. There are quick and easy solutions and I am really worried when I read that Euroleague matches may change schedule due to the FIFA World Cup for viewing reasons and that there is no of change for FIBA’s windows,” lamented Andreas Zagklis.
Photo : Andreas Zagklis (FIBA)
