Reply With QuoteYes, I have seen this here and on talkbasket. But what is the source of this information? I mean, is this something Greek press is discussing?
New "Mediterranean League"
I heard that the owners of Olympiacos are working on starting a new big international league, called the "Mediterranean League".
The goal of the new Mediterranean League is to replace the Spanish ACB League as the premiere regional/domestic league in Europe and to improve the level and quality of competition for the clubs participating in the league, versus what they currently have in their national domestic leagues.
The new league would include clubs such as Lottomatica Roma, Armani Milano, Montepaschi Siena, Olympiacos Piraeus, Panathinaikos Athens, Aris Thessaloniki, Fenerbache Ulker, Efes Pilsen, Maccabi Tel Aviv and others.
The clubs would also have to play their home games in a 5,000 seat arena.
Yes, I have seen this here and on talkbasket. But what is the source of this information? I mean, is this something Greek press is discussing?
11th Commandment: You shall not say Maccabi is a mediocre team!
Ex FIBA Europe Vassilakopoulos is the owner of olympiacos?Originally Posted by FIBA Europe Basket
on the spot as always
P.I.G.S
This was mentioned in our media and they said that our teams (or just Partizan) could probably be invited to participate. If this is true, it would be awesome, cause we could finally ditch the circus aka Adriatic league.
I think it's absurd to create an international league for only this goal...
I think that multimillonaire owns of oly are jealous because his team doesn't play in the best league of europe
Last edited by Kwijibo; 07-29-2010 at 01:52 PM.
Isn't it the Euroleague?
Yes i forgot it
Do you both understand that you took for granted something FIBA Europe Basket said, without providing any facts or links for his claims as always?
Fact number 1 is that this league is a plan of ex-Fiba europe president Vassilakopoulos, and oly's owners have nothing to do with that.
Vassilakopoulos is not the most popular guy for oly...
Fact number 2 is that the purpose is to create a league where a big number of teams from various national leagues with little competition, will be able to participate in a strong competitive league.
The regular season of the greek league have nothing to offer to oly or pao.
The same with the italian league and sienna etc.
the purpose is to create a league where these teams will be able to face strong competition during regular season, and to participate only in the play-offs of their national leagues.
Nothing to do with oly's owners and "replacing" ACB or any other delusions of FIBA Europe Basket...
P.I.G.S
That would kill those national leagues.
They are already dead...
On the contrary, i think its an interesting idea, because that would give some interest to the other teams who now can't compete with the bigger teams in regular season.
The teams from "Mediterranean League" will skip the regular season and participate only in the play-offs...
In the greek league for example, except maroussi and sometimes aris/paok/panellinios/panionios, all other teams can't compete with oly and pao not even for a quarter...
I mean the games go up to 30, 40 points difference...
I have a season ticket for oly's games, and very often i'm thinking "does it worth it to spend 2 hours of my life and go to SEF to watch the game against e.g olympia larissa"?
And i guess sometimes the players are thinking the same thing, as quite often they look bored to death
I don't know exactly how things work in the other leagues, but i guess its pretty much the same for maccabi in israel, sienna in italy etc.
P.I.G.S
I mean, the leagues might be on a competitive crisis, and making such a move in a bad financial time for Europe can lead to sponsors and TV losing even more interest and an even deeper crisis for the rest of the clubs.
Sorry for intervening in your conversation, but even though this might be partially true i can see positive things coming out of that..The small clubs will have to switch on production of young players, and teams like oly-pao-aris-paok who have strong fanbases will compete to a strong mediterranean league and give their fans a boost to go and see them
If you notice in the euroleague games where competition is stronger oly and pao have big attendances and some days later in ESAKE games their numbers are much much lower
You have to be a really fanatic basketball fan to go and watch olympiacos-trikala and panathinaikos-kavala.. Some of us are such fanatic basketball fans that we stay awake until 4 o'clock in the morning to watch college basketball but let's be honest - that is not a normal behavior
The reason why there is an idea to create a Mediterranean league can only be explained if you watch the Greek championship finals. Its commonly recognised that almost every crucial game between Olympiacos and Panathinaikos also involves extremely hostile refereeing (this is a huge topic). In the end of the championship this year, the owners of Olympiacos where thinking of leaving the Greek league and joining the Adriatic league.... it is because of the frustration with the referees. This is why there is talk about a Med league...
Not necessarily... if you look at how the Adriatic league works it is in conjunction with domestic leagues where points carry over... i don't know exactly how it works though as I am unfamiliar with the mechanics and admin of the adriatic league.
this idea is awful.It would kill the domestic championships once and for all with no hope of ever coming back.
Ok,Maybe the rest of greek teams are not strong,but they are still teams and there is the only chance of ppl who don't live in the two big cities to watch some high level bball.
It will also make euroleague so much less exciting-since it will be almost the same with med league.
I'm fully against this idea and hope it just remains a wild dream of Vassilakopoulos.
This is a plan in completely the wrong direction to make basketball stronger in Greece imo.
"The worst part is wondering how you’ll find the strength tomorrow to go on doing what you did today and have been doing for much too long,where you’ll find the strength for all that stupid running around,those attempts to escape from crushing necessity,which always founder and serve only to convince you one more time that destiny is implacable,that every night will find you down and out,crushed by the dread of more and more sordid and insecure tomorrows.~Céline
Hmmm hard desicion. The idea sounds great in one way. Only that I would prefer it to be expanded including the entire continent. I mean just imagine, a league that contains the best teams in europe, kind of like NBA version of europe. With 18-20 teams. There will be no euroleague and this league will be over all. The teams attending this continental league or however it would be called will not participate in local leagues. The local leagues will be like 2nd division leagues of the continental league, with teams competing to take part in the continental league. I would have loved it if it was like this. Sounds great in one way. On the other hand yes I agree local leagues would totally die. It's bad but nothing like the end of the world. I mean look at the current situation, in Turkey everybody knows it will again be an efes-fb ülker playoff final. Any combination apart from that would be a surprise. Perhaps the same is true in Greek league for oly and pao. Taking some top teams out and gathering them in a different league over all the leagues, yes it sounds exciting. Might be worth trying but as someone has mentioned there's no turning back from it.
Pointless...
it's a very nice idea though it would kill national leagues for sure.
Without strong national leagues you can't build strong players. For instance if your best teams particiapted in such a tournament no one will follow the national league anymore some teams and all those rich guys supporting the other teams will just quit basketball. Your national team will slowly get destroyed. I mean a team of half foreigners can't build a true national team. A championship would be better.
I hope one day one of our teams will get invited. We have riyadi/sagesse/mouttahed able to participate and somehow compete in the early stages as a beginning. It will surely improve our game. But once again talking as a championship and not a league. Or else gd by lebanese basketball.
Mediterranean League Project
I am guessing most of you have heard of the mediterranean league project. here is a an updated detailed article.
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