Things are getting stupid in the Adriatic League crisis so that means it’s a day ending in a y, writes Emmet Ryan.
As they are wont to do, FIBA Europe issued a statement on Sunday following the conclusion of their regular board meeting. First up, happy news about EuroBasket ticket sales. Then more good news on the organisation of women’s EuroBasket preparations. Then came news on when to expect an announcement on EuroBasket 2017. Then news on the women’s Euroleague Final Four.
So far, so boring. Then came these paragraphs:
“The Board also confirmed the recognition of the Balkan League while it decided to derecognise the Adriatic League.
Recognition of a league may be withdrawn particularly in the case a league does not comply with the requirements under the FIBA Europe bye-laws and the FIBA general statuses and internal regulations.
The Adriatic League failed to provide sufficient information on several points related to the above when requested to do so by FIBA Europe and FIBA.
In order to avoid disrupting the competition currently under way and adversely affect the clubs, it was agreed that the withdrawal will take effect at the end of the current Adriatic League season.”
Talk about burying the lede. Recognising one regional league, the pretty small fry Balkan League, and de-recognising one of the biggest leagues in Europe. That’s the news. That’s the story. That’s also quite a big deal.
Or so we thought until today when FIBA Europe board member Željko Drakšić said no decision had been made.
Drakšić: "We didn't vote about anything regarding ABA League. The agreement was made to discuss this matters when season ends."
— Yugobasket (@yugobasket) March 9, 2015
Drakšić’s remarks directly contradict what FIBA Europe said in an official statement just the previous day about the same meeting. This is, at best, a confusing state of affairs.
While we may hear different things from FIBA Europe’s official organ and one of its board members, the people with power on the outside aren’t sitting around idly. Super-agent Misko Raznatovic has already indicated back-up plans are in place.
Miško Ražnatović: "In case a solution is not found & top clubs won't play in regional competition, our bball will be sentenced to death"
— Yugobasket (@yugobasket) March 9, 2015
And yes, you should all be following YugoBasket on Twitter.
The upside of this mess is that FIBA Europe has essentially kicked the sanctions to touch until the end of this season which means everybody’s got time to fix this mess. It also means the ABA Liga’s decision to switch its post-season to a best-of-5 playoff format with that deciding who gets the two Euroleague slots goes unaffected. Nobody’s being left in the lurch for a couple of months. Then everything can and, given its tendency to do so on this continent, go to hell in quite a brilliantly messy way.
It is the mother of understatements to say the continuation of the Adriatic League is the preferable outcome here. Naturally, this requires everybody actually functioning sanely, but a return to purely national leagues in the region reduces the quality of product. Each of the clubs in the league, and with it the players, benefits from their main week-to-week play being in a high level competition and the combination of the best clubs from the Adriatic region is the easiest way to ensure that.
It’s messy but it’s not like we haven’t seen such kerfuffles in Europe before. The road may be long, it will most certainly involve a ton of shouting because that’s how European basketball controversies work, but hopefully the only moaning we’ll be doing about the ABA Liga come the autumn is how it’s so hard to watch legally.
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