The FIBA–EuroLeague Basketball controversy is a historical dispute between FIBA Europe and EuroLeague Basketball over control of the European-wide club basketball competitions. It initially started as a dispute between FIBA Europe and ULEB.
Background ULEB was founded in 1991 from the Italian, Spanish and French leagues in an attempt to promote their clubs' financial interests within the FIBA competitions. The union was celebrated with the ULEB All-Star Game, held annually for three seasons, featuring stars from the three leagues and also NBA guests like Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan. In 1996 the Greek league joined ULEB.
The Champions Cup was originally established by FIBA Europe, and it operated under its umbrella from 1958 until summer 2000, concluding with the 1999–00 season. In the 1990s the name changed to European League as runners-up were also included in the competition and the teams competed in groups rather than knock-out games. In 1996 it was renamed to FIBA EuroLeague.
History 2000-01 split In May 2000, ULEB under its president Eduardo Portela, representing the richest and most popular European basketball clubs from Spain, Italy and Greece, decided to take over the competition under the name of ULEB Euroleague, against FIBA and Borislav Stanković's will. Stanković's stiff stance over the top European clubs' demand seemed to play a major role in their decision. At the time FIBA's media company handling the TV rights distribution was ISL. The new competition was financially backed by Telefonica, a Spanish multinational telecommunications company which offered 35 million dollars per season for the next 4 years (2000-2004). EuroLeague immediately hired 54 FIBA referees, with Kostas Rigas as the commissioner.ULEB Assembly 2000
FIBA's biggest mistake was that it had never trademarked the "EuroLeague" name, even though it had used it since the mid-nineties. The leading European clubs therefore used the EuroLeague name for their new competition which started in 2000. FIBA responded by launching their new SuproLeague competition.
Most of the leading clubs joined EuroLeague, although Panathinaikos, Maccabi Tel Aviv and CSKA Moscow stayed with FIBA who threatened to ban EuroLeague teams from their domestic leagues. Federations from Turkey, France and Russia did not allow their teams to apply for the new competition, but only for the FIBA sanctioned SuproLeague.
The 2000 split had as a result the cancellation of the very successful FIBA All-Star Game in the 2000-01 season as many of the best players (Dejan Bodiroga, Manu Ginobili, Alphonso Ford) were playing in EuroLeague. At the end of 2000-01 there were two European champions: Maccabi Tel Aviv from FIBA and Virtus Bologna from ULEB. The latter changed the format of the EuroLeague with a best of three final and no Final Four, while SuproLeague hosted it in Paris.
In February 2001, delegations from both sides met with an aim to unify the competitions as it was clear that European basketball could not financially handle two top tournaments. Eduardo Portella and Jordi Bertomeu from ULEB and Borislav Stanković, Patrick Baumann, Giorgos Vassilakopoulos and Shimon Mizrahi from FIBA. Following the 2000–01 season, the ULEB (Euroleague Basketball) seemed to be in a better position than FIBA Europe, having wealthy Telefonica on its side and already trademarked the Euroleague name, while SuproLeague was discontinued after a single season. FIBA's media company reportedly owed 152 million dollars without paying the SuproLeague teams over their TV rights. Thus, Maccabi, Panathinaikos and CSKA Moscow decided to join EuroLeague.
In 2001 FIBA agreed to give up the running of Europe's top competition and the 2001-02 Euroleague was a unified competition with ULEB as the main organiser. International Sport and Leisure and Media Pro Agency would both sponsor the competition. Telefonica owned 70 percent of the league in partnership with the EuroLeague itself (25 percent), and the Media Pro agency (5 percent).
After a new argument with ULEB in October 2001, FIBA attempted to launched its own top competition, the FIBA Champions Cup in 2002. Korać Cup and Saporta Cup were abolished for that reason. The Champions Cup which featured 15 domestic champions failed to become a competitive league to the Euroleague, despite Euroleague's financial debts to its teams. On 22 July 2002 ULEB had also announced the launch the ULEB Cup as its 2nd tier competition.ULEB Cup announced - SBJ Euroleague teams like Panathinaikos and Unicaja Malaga seemed close to choosing the FIBA Champions Cup, but they decided to stay and strengthen ULEB's position. In 2002 Telefónica also extended its commitment to the EuroLeague until 2009. Telefónica had originally agreed to pump in $35 million a season for five seasons under the original deal, but that amount was reduced when the agreement was prolonged.Telefonica extension with Euroleague - SBJ
In May 2003 following ULEB's financial problems, FIBA decided to create a new competition with 30 teams, similar to SuproLeague. At the time EuroLeague seemed to owe money to its clubs and the new FIBA project was appealing as the teams would be free to negotiate their broadcasting rights. While top teams like Panathinaikos and Olympiacos BC seemed to be tempted, in the end only a total of 11 champions and runners-up joined the FIBA Europe League.
In November 2004, FIBA and EuroLeague officially came to an agreement, to take effect as of the 2005–06 season. FIBA agreed to sanction the two top tournaments, but these would be run by ULEB, whilst FIBA would directly run the other European club tournaments, the FIBA EuroCup and the FIBA EuroChallenge. An official contract was signed by both sides, regulating the organization of club competitions in Europe and ULEB's obligation was to pay annually a fee of €400,000 to FIBA Europe.
2002: FIBA creates new club competitions FIBA launched the 2002–03 FIBA Europe Champions Cup in an attempt to revive the FIBA Euroleague. On the other hand, ULEB created rival competition, the ULEB Cup, which forced FIBA to abolish the Korac Cup and the Saporta Cup. ULEB Cup was a success, while FIBA launched a new competition as its top tier, the FIBA Europe League. In November 2004, FIBA and ULEB came to an agreement that the Euroleague and the ULEB Cup teams couldn't exceed 48. In the summer of 2006, ULEB broke the agreement by increasing the number of its teams.
2009: ECA takes over ECA was founded in 2006 and it gradually started limiting ULEB's role in the running of its two competitions. In 2008, when Eduardo Portela stepped down, ULEB became more cooperative with FIBA. As soon as EuroLeague competition was transferred from ULEB to ECA in 2009, ULEB remained a minority shareholder via EuroLeague Basketball, but lost control over the competition.
Since 2010, ECA has undertaken ULEB's obligation to pay the annual fee of €400,000 to FIBA Europe. However, ECA purported to terminate the agreement in December 2012, invoking the announced change to the FIBA calendar as of 2017.Euroleague court case
2015-17 controversy FIBA Europe Cup and Champions League In June 2015, FIBA announced it would start a new league to compete with EuroLeague Basketball. The new competition replaced FIBA EuroChallenge. In October 2015, FIBA also announced its plans for a new top-tier semi-closed competition in a round-robin format and tried to take the helm by convincing eight of the twelve teams with a EuroLeague A-licence at the time, to play in a new FIBA competition, Basketball Champions League. This proposal that would leave Unicaja Malaga, Tau, Olimpia Milano and Zalgiris out, was unanimously rejected by the clubs who soon published a new identical format for the Euroleague. The other 8 spots would have remained open for clubs via the domestic leagues, with two qualifying rounds.
In November 2015, EuroLeague Basketball agreed to a 10-year marketing joint venture with IMG, which would invest 35 million euros per season. In its press release, the EuroLeague announced a new competition format for the 2016–17 season, identical to the one proposed by FIBA, with only 16 teams including eleven A-license clubs who signed for 10 years, instead of three (Anadolu Efes, Baskonia, CSKA Moscow, FC Barcelona, Fenerbahçe, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Olimpia Milano, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Real Madrid, and Žalgiris), playing in only one group with a double round-robin, with the top eight playing in a best-of-five playoffs round to decide qualification to the 2017 EuroLeague Final Four.
After its initial proposal was rejected, FIBA changed the format of the Basketball Champions League, with qualification based on performance. This competition was officially launched on 22 March 2016.
Threats of suspension Despite the offer of FIBA to all European national basketball federations, many clubs instead agreed with EuroLeague to participate in the 2016–17 EuroLeague, or 2016–17 EuroCup. Regional leagues like the Adriatic League and VTB United League, as well as many national domestic leagues, signed contracts with EuroLeague Basketball for the right to participate in its competitions.
Because of this, FIBA threatened to suspend 14 European basketball federations from EuroBasket 2017. Notified national organisations were given until 20 April 2016 to explain their stance.
National basketball federation Men's national team Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatian Basketball Federation Hellenic Basketball Federation Israel Basketball Association Italian Basketball Federation Lithuanian Basketball Federation Spanish Basketball Federation Basketball Federation of Montenegro Basketball Federation of North Macedonia Polish Basketball Association Russian Basketball Federation Basketball Federation of Serbia Basketball Federation of Slovenia Turkish Basketball Federation
On 16 April, FIBA asked Germany to take over the hosting of the 2016 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament from Italy, which was at risk of suspension. In the end, no suspensions were applied.
Reactions Greece Georgios Nikolaou, director of communications of AEK Athens, after its defeat against PAOK, in the first game of the Greek League quarterfinals, stated that his club, "will not be blackmailed by anyone, and doesn’t get any kind of messages by anyone".
Lithuania On 20 April 2016, the Lithuanian Basketball Federation suspended BC Lietuvos Rytas for their agreement with EuroLeague. Subsequently, the club from Vilnius would be disqualified from the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL). Remigijus Milašius, president of the LKL, refuted their arguments and said that FIBA "promised a lot of money, which they do not even have".
Šarūnas Jasikevičius, head coach of Lithuanian team BC Žalgiris, argued that "playing in a FIBA tournament means taking a 20-year step back".
Russia Andrei Kirilenko, president of the Russian Basketball Federation, requested the VTB United League to suspend the participation of all Russian teams in ULEB competitions. He also said the contract with VTB would be voided if the league refuses.
Spain Francisco Roca, president of the Spanish ACB, said "the ban is unfair and unfounded", there is not any ban for Spanish teams from playing in FIBA competitions, despite agreeing to the contract with EuroLeague Basketball.
The Spanish Basketball Federation requested that the ACB suspend its agreement with the EuroLeague. The ACB answered stating that it cannot impede clubs from joining their tournaments, and that the possible suspension of the Spanish national team was not its fault.