"The clubs have carried out a coup d'état" or how the Euroleague showed the way to the Super League 23 years ago

The blow to the federative model caused by the ruling that the European justice system made public this Thursday shakes the foundations of sport, not only those of football.. It is a boost to the future Super League, that split that 12 European clubs began like an earthquake in April 2021, of which only Real Madrid and Barcelona now resist.. Because, seeking parallels in the face of the unprecedented, the Court of Justice of the EU comes to agree after the fact with the Euroleague in its historic conflict with the FIBA.

The current schism has a precedent, a clear mirror in which to see oneself reflected. In the summer of 2000 the baskets also jumped into the air. There were also threats, criticism, uncertainty and a panorama that seemed unsustainable, with two European Cups at the same time during one season.. Finally, from that fire there remain the well-settled embers of the current Euroleague. “Basketball teaches the way to football, which sees how clubs can be responsible for their business,” Jordi Bertomeu, general director of the newborn, warned 22 years ago.. Yesterday, on Radio Marca, he reiterated that message: “The only one that is still with the model since the World War is football.”. It is logical that at some point this sector also has to change. In 2000, a basketball league already opened the door and now confirmed with this sentence.”

A competition that has not stopped evolving and growing, also dodging bullets. Since the 2019/2020 season with 18 teams and with a licensing system similar to the one the Super League wants to implement: since June 2021 there are 13 teams with a long-term license. The French ASVEL and the German Bayern Munich were the last to be included based on “development criteria, penetration into strategic markets, interest and business”. The rest of the participants in each course depend on the 'wild cards' awarded and the champion of the second continental competition, the Eurocup, also outside the FIBA (which has its own competitions, the Champions League and the Europe Cup, to curl the curl).

Eduardo Portela

“The clubs have carried out a coup d'état,” said Boris Stankovic in June 2000, the eternal general secretary of FIBA (from 1976 to 2002), who expelled the 'traitors', the nine clubs that created the Euroleague. and the body that represented them, the Union of European Leagues (ULEB). It was Real Madrid, Barcelona, Baskonia, Olympiacos, Zalgiris, Benetton, AEK of Athens and the two Bologna clubs, Kinder and Fortitudo, that led to the historic split, with Eduardo Portela as president of the institution.. Curiously, the Spanish president was also the president of the ACB itself, since then they went hand in hand.

As now with football, everything made economic sense. The trigger was the joint sale by FIBA of the television rights to the Swiss firm ISL in exchange for about 20 million dollars.. Until then, each club managed them on their own.. The ULEB wanted greater decision-making and management power and already presented a new contract by which the clubs would share a minimum of 35 million dollars per year.

On October 16, 2000, Real Madrid and Olympiacos inaugurated the new Euroleague in the Raimundo Saporta Pavilion, a competition with 24 teams and a pioneer, as it allowed the free contracting of players without quotas or nationality restrictions.. It advanced at the same time as the FIBA Suproleague, which featured the best Greek, Turkish, Russian and French teams, as well as Maccabi Tel Aviv.. And in May-June 2001 there were two European champions. The historic Kinder by Ginobili, Rashard Griffith, Rigaudeau, Jaric, Smodis…. beat Dusko Ivanovic's Baskonia in a five-game Euroleague final. Three days later, Maccabi lifted the Suproliga after defeating Panathinaikos in the Final Four in Paris (it was going to be in Vitoria…) (81-67).

Kinder de Bologna, winner of the first Euroleague.

The following year, the two organizations decided that the ULEB Euroleague would be the only and maximum European competition, although the conflict has endured over the years, rebounding in 2015 with the famous 'Windows' that FIBA introduced so that the national teams could play qualifying matches during the season. Overlooked by the Euroleague clubs, which do not lend (there have been exceptions) their players in those periods, there were even threats to expel the teams of those countries by not playing the FIBA tournaments (Olympic Games, World Cups…).

However, the NBA (and the rest of the American leagues, NFL, NHL, MLS, etc…) has little to do with it, starting because the structure of American sports is radically different from the European one, with a very powerful university base that does not even exist in the old continent. It was in 1946 when a closed professional league was born (it was gradually expanded, up to the current 30 franchises, with expansion teams) and was based on a criterion of economic solidarity.. In the NBA, the multimillion-dollar income from national television rights is distributed equally and the franchises only have differences in this sense with their regional income.. In addition to the salary limit (with fines for those who exceed it), a 'draft' by which the best university players go to the worst ranked teams, etc…

Those waters have momentarily calmed (the FIBA has reduced its qualifying 'windows' and the positions are much less acrimonious) and while waiting for the next fight, an increasingly voracious Euroleague coexists with the national leagues and the matches of teams without stars. All in an impossible schedule.