Comments on: Three French Euroleague teams in 2009/2010

By: Marco

Marco — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:29:41 +0000

@santos: …and in the course of all this chaos still winning an incredible amount of national and club medals internationally. get a clue, man, why should the euroleague help countries with dead fans to watch a sport they don’t care about. one time everyone is praising the passionate greek fans at the final four, the other time every sore loser starts crying about how uncivilized they are and how the euroleague has to do this and that and the other thing. that’s a cheap shot, especially considering that so many countries have or have had these kinds of problems in professional sports. The euroleague is absolutely worthless without a strong greek representation, and the best thing is to be constructive about helping those two greek rivals to clean it up instead of complaining around about things that have nothing to do with you. Basketball is not the strong suit of your average western “civilized” country, but it is played at its best in all sorts of countries NOT named France, Germany and England. So Partizan, Pao and Oly have overpassionate fans, and some loser just heard about it right now because they are more in the media than they used to… shocking news for you, aye?

By: santos

santos — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:45:49 +0000

Greek Championship?
This is not an athletic affair. Greek championship is a jungle. Euroleague is business, and they do very well trying to award the French market. They should give more option to the teams from western , civilized, wealthy countries. Greek championship is like you spend millions of euros and throw the players in a arena with uncivilized funs…

By: Ball in Europe - European Basketball Blog » Blog Archive » No news on Euroleague competition system

Mon, 18 May 2009 14:16:28 +0000

[...] Baldi what his view on the highly controversial third spot in the Euroleague for France. (In fact, Jordi Bertomeu has announced that ASVEL Villeurbanne will get a wildcard to play the Euroleague qualification phase in [...]

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 05:56:19 +0000

3 French clubs? Really? My goodness, the Pro A of France has been absolutely terrible lately. Really they have not deserved even 1 club in the Euroleague and now they get 3? And ASVEL getting a contract over clubs like Lietuvos Rytas, Khimki, Milano, Dynamo, Joventut, Aris, hell even ALBA? Seriously? No really, for real they get a contract over clubs like that?

So now Russia has only 2 spots (compared to France’s 3), yet they have 4 teams like CSKA, Khimki, UNICS, and Dynamo that are all far better than any French club, yet France has 3 places? France has the same places as Italy???? How can that be possible? France has the same amount of places as Greece? Is this a joke? I mean, ASVEL will probably finish in about 8th or 9th place in the domestic league if they played in Greece’s A1.

I really hope Bertomeu knows what he is doing, but it sure does not look like it.

By: IN THE GAME » Blog Archive » 09/10 Euroleague participants - a short overview of what we know as of 2nd of April 2009

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:14:32 +0000

[...] Euroleague are still going on – most recently, Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu revealed [as Ballineurope.com reported] in French sports paper L’Equipe that ASVEL Villeurbanne will be awarded a wildcard for the [...]

By: Joaquin

Joaquin — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:31:23 +0000

I prefer only 2 french teams: ASVEL and French Champion.

Currently there are better russian, serbian and turkish teams than french teams.

By: Eric

Eric — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:05:29 +0000

Well, I am French and I will try to defend my country……
Does France deserve 1 guaranteed spot + 2 unprotected spots in the quali ? The obvious answer is no.
So why do we get those tickets ?
Because the project of Mr Bertomeu is to have a closed league with perennial money. And France brings this kind of club Le Mans/Nancy/Asvel are really well structured clubs. They don’t lose money and this is very important for the new Euroleague.
I am not saying that clubs in other countries don’t have the same guarantee, but as mentionned by Christophe, Canal + pays a lot of money for the TV rights…..a really superior amount if you compare via a ratio of games played by French team/games broadcasted.
There are no French teams in the Top 16, but I can see Euroleague games every week : Canal + really supports the Euroleague via this exposure, and it’s really an investissement for this channel because there no more than 20.000 people watching (compared to 100.000 for the weekly ProA game).

Why is Canal + giving so much for so few national games ?
This is only my opinion, it’s not based on facts. Canal is the historical broadcaster of NBA basketball. The future Euroleague (like it or not) is becoming an EuroNBA. Canal, on the French market sees a strong concurrence emerging from a new rival : Orange (former FranceTelecom) TV via Adsl. Orange is a much bigger company, promoting their TV offer via exclusive rights that they buy at an amount that even Canal + can’t follow. Canal has lost half of the French football league, they may lose the rights for the Champion’s League. So it’s really important for Canal to promote basketball as a second choice, a second big story à la Champion’s League. Canal must make something out of basketball, that’s why they give so much money to Euroleague.

In conclusion, Canal + has bought the right for 3 French teams, it’s really clear that it’s not fair to most of your local teams. But on the other hand, Canal+ really believes in the future of European basketball, a sport that they believe (and that I hope) will attract more and more customer to its private channels. They want to become a major partner in the future of our sport, and in a kind of way Mr Bertomeu is thanking them with thoses licenses.
On the national scene, it also a very positive signs for the basketball community. Football is the main scene and behind it’s a race between b-ball, handball and rugby. With this “”gift”", it’s also a sign in the direction of all the future sponsors : if you support a club you will get an European exposure. It’s a gamble for a future positive circle.

Well…..i just hope that our clubs won’t be as broken as the last 2 years.

By: Christophe

Christophe — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:58:26 +0000

@Robbe
exactly. this is the point. France has 1 team that will play the Euroleague for sure. This is one less than before. The two teams in the Qualification phase will have a very tough job to qualify, and if they do qualify, then they deserve the spots

By: robbe

robbe — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:54:41 +0000

@All: As it looks, France will have only one direct qualification spot though. And I don’t see any french team advance through the qualification, as those two groups are going to be very tough, with the third Greek team, the third Italian team, the second Russian team, maybe a fifth Spanish teams, and others.

Greece has two A-Licences.

So even if three French teams looks a bit odd, I think we won’t have more than one French participant in the regular season.

By: Teo

Teo — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 11:54:16 +0000

so france has the same amount of places like greece. how is that for ridiculous…