FIBA negotiates with the Euroleague a restructuring of European basketball

The general director of the FIBA ​​Champions League (BCL), the Athenian Patrick Comninos, reported this Saturday that he is in “open talks” with the Euroleague in search of “better structuring European basketball”, since he thinks that “It is not correct” that there are four competitions.

Comninos, in an appearance with journalists to take stock of the BCL that will decide its champion this Sunday in Malaga, has declared that there is “a open dialogue with the new direction of the Euroleague, with the aim of finding a definitive solution to make European basketball grow”.

“We are sitting around the table analyzing a series of issues, not just Eurocup and BCL,” added the BCL leader, who highlighted the initiative as a move to “better structure European basketball, safeguarding the strength of the national leagues”.

For the maximum mandator of the Champions League “it is important determine a number of European competitions that makes the most sense” because currently there are four: Euroleague, Eurocup, the BCL itself and the FIBA ​​European Cup, something that “is not necessarily the right thing to do”.

“It is also important that a level of competitiveness is guaranteed“, analyzed Comninos, who stressed that this edition of the BCL is “the most competitive in history, it was demonstrated in the semifinals”, in which Unicaja and Tenerife lost by the minimum against Telekom Baskets Bonn and Hapoel Jerusalem, the two finalists .

“We all want to continue growing in terms of the level of the tournament,” said Comninos, who also reported that FIBA’s intention in this tournament is “continue looking for a neutral place“, but this year they chose Malaga because “for various reasons, there were many opportunities to go to a neutral place, but none of them satisfied.”