ULEB, Union des Ligues Européennes de Basket-ball, News
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New 011 Milan,6-21-2000
Meeting of Milan, Official Comunication
The ULEB assembly that has been held in Milan today has reached the following agreements:
Report of the conversations with FIBA and the agreements adopted by the European Bureau
The ULEB proposed FIBA, at the two meetings held in Munich, a model of competition that included also a global sport management and not only an economic management, as FIBA said.
This aspect was basic and unquestionable to make up FIBA, but FIBA refused this possibility.
The ULEB showed its purpose of reaching agreements offering FIBA the acceptation of some of the FIBA rules, as the game rules, the eligibility of players and the transfers. However, ULEB also made its purpose of adopting a new disciplinary regulation clear.
The ULEB asked FIBA for making a treaty that should include the main grounds of the competition (disciplinary, referee, management matters, etc.). This treaty was not accepted by FIBA, that has also aggressively criticized it not only in its press releases but also in its official visits.
Having seen confirmed this fact, the ULEB has decided to close its negotiation with FIBA and to announce that, if this negotiation were opened again, all the point would be discussed from the beginning and not from the last proposal.
Teams that will participate in the new Euroleague
The three founder Leagues Italy, Greece and Spain, decided to register 20 teams in this competition named Euroleague. Four teams will be registered later to complete the 24 that will make up the League. The 20 teams registered are: Fortitudo Bolonia, Benetton Treviso, Virtus Bolonia and Verona, from Italy; Olympiakos, AEK Atenas, Paok Salónica and Peristeri, from Greece; Real Madrid Teka, FC Barcelona, Adecco Estudiantes and Tau Cerámica from Spain; Charleroi (Belgium), Ovarense (Portugal), London Towers (England), Frankfurt (Germany), Hapoel Jerusalem (Israel), Olimplia (Sloveny), Zalguiris Kaunas (Lithuania) y Cibona (Croatia).
The competition will be completed with 4 teams from this group: Lugano (Switzerland), Asvel Villeurbanne (France), Buducnost (Yugoslavia), CSKA Moscú (Russia) y Wroclaw (Poland). Other teams that could join the Euroleague are Caja San Fernando (Spain), Varese (Italy), Sparta de Praga (Czech Republic) y Antibes (France).
Eligibility and transfers of the players
Due to the dissent with the proposals submitted, the attendants put the approbation of these two rules off until the next meeting, which will be held in Salonica.
Referees
The ULEB brings in the third referee. This cost will be compensated by the deletion of the current commissioner, which will be substituted by a local commissioner.
The referees of this League have the guarantee that they will have 3 years of permanency and special incomes, which will be defined by the new referee's director.
Costas Rigas, the new referee's director of the competition, will be in charge of establishing criteria and to create a new disciplinary rules philosophy.
Legal aspects
The ULEB has notified the European Commission the agreement of the Euroligue constitution. ULEB also has notified the EC that FIBA recommended the National Federations to sanction the clubs that took part in this competition.
This fact has caused the ULEB assembly decision of helping the concerned clubs in the definition of a joint strategy, which should quash the possible sanctions.
New posts
The ULEB assembly has unanimously elected the current General Manager of the ACB, Jordi Bertomeu, as the General Manager of the Euroleague, and the current General Manager of the Greek League (HEBA), Costas Rigas, as the referee's director.
The ULEB will communicate soon the person in charge of the marketing department.
Schedule and toss up
The attendants put the approbation of the schedule and the toss up of the groups off until the next meeting, which will be held in Salonica the next 11th and 12th of July.
Official Communiqué
The clubs that have attended the meeting held in Milan have unanimously decided not to accept the invitation to attend and informative session in Munich tomorrow (22nd of June) made by FIBA to some clubs. All the clubs think that FIBA has already had enough opportunities to reach satisfactory agreements. Therefore, they think that the dialogue is not possible and they refuse the FIBA offer. From now, the clubs express that they are only interested in working for the development of the new competition opposite to the one organized by FIBA.
Milan,6-21-2000
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