Olympiacos’ meeting with Fenerbahce on Wednesday 26 April at the SEF will be the first between the two teams with a place in the Final Four at stake. EuroleagueMay 19-21 in Kaunas, Lithuania.

The Red-Whites finished in 1st in the regular season for the first time in its history and to get to the end of the road, they must overcome the “curse” that prevented any 1st-place team from winning the trophy.

A big move, however, must be made against a Turkish team with very strong white-and-blue touches (Dimitris Itoudis, Stefanos Dedas, Nick Kalatis, Tyler Dorsey, Alex Antetokounmpo), in a pairing quite undesirable for the champions, even if they won easily Fener in the regular season.

The 1st place bonus is not only a home advantage, but theoretically more affordable.enemy at the crossroads 1-8a condition that does not arise in the current situation, as a very expensive team of many stars finished in 8th place in the regular season, which at the beginning of the event was predicted as a strong favorite to capture the title.

One would have expected a more passable opponent for Olympiacos, who fought hard in a 34-game marathon to take first place, but the league’s playoff system often causes such a rumble. On top of that, it’s highly debatable how big this one more (if need be) game away to the top four is, given that in the NBA, half of the teams have already lost it since the very first game day. .

The current system of holding the Euroleague with 34 games, playoffs and final four who decides the champion is undeniably very demanding and requires a total of 39 to 41 matches to determine the team that will take the trophy.

Games it’s a little compared to the NBA where only the regular season is taken into account 82 matches, with much longer travel times over much longer distances. The number of matches at the end of the year is increased due to the obligations of the teams in national competitions, but in reality most of them are not of the Euroleague level. Moreover, in Greece they essentially have the character education for Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, teams with different budgets compared to everyone else.

Unlike in European football, where coaches and players have been complaining for years about the heavy calendar and asking for a reduction in the number of games, in basketball the number of voices demanding even more games is on the rise!

In the NBA, for example, they include play in the program to motivate in even more teams, and the establishment of an intra-season tournament will start from the next period, which will add additional games to an already heavily loaded schedule.

Motivation is natural. economical. More matches, they mean more sponsors, more tickets, more revenue. This is a mini-tournament that will be held simultaneously with the NBA games until December of each year, it is attended by 30 teams, divided into 6 groups of 5 teams.

Each of them will play 4 games (2 home and 2 away), with the top 6 in the groups plus two more wild card eliminations advancing to a knockout tournament on a neutral venue. Player fees will be from 4 to 7 games per year and in order not to see this as a routine, their union agreed with the NBA that there would be an additional bonus of 500 thousand dollars for each player on the winning team, 200 thousand for the 2nd, 100 thousand for the 3rd. and 50 thousand for the 4th.

Coaches ask to change Euroleague format

Most Euroleague coaches consider the current system outdated and ask changing the format of the eventwith the addition of play-in matches that will limit the points of indifferent teams, increasing interest and competition.

The Coaches Association is positioning itself positively and asking for changes that will stimulate the sport, as Dimitris Itoudis explained in more detail shortly before the regular season final:

“In the beginning there were 16 teams, and then 8 could go, that is, 50%. Compared to the best league in the world, the NBA, there 16 out of 30 teams go to the playoffs, and the play-in system has been operating there for several years. They added something interesting for the fans. Here we added 2 teams and made them 18 of the 16 that were previously in the regular season, but only 8 of them advance further, less than 50%. You may agree or disagree. I have been talking about this since I was the coach of CSKA. It doesn’t matter if we are fifth or eighth. People think how to add something, how to offer more and more interesting games. When we, as the Association of Euroleague Coaches, are called upon to express our opinion, because we lead these organizations, we will express our ideas, and we have a lot of them. We want a play-in tournament, we want to make the Euroleague even more exciting“!

On the “table” shift scenarios

Today at the meeting of shareholders of the Euroleague is expected to discuss a number of important proposals to change the format of the competition for the coming years. There are many scenarios, while an increase in the number of commands from the next event is considered almost a given.

At the center of the discussion will be the offer to join the organization from 2024 for a team from Dubai – United Arab Emirates with a bold “sponsorship” of 60 million euros, and not just 20 million, as was the original proposal. With such staggering sums, any objections about the inconvenience that teams will have to overcome so far, or doubts about the advisability of holding a “final four” competition sometime in the near future, will be overcome.

Offer gradually increase the number of teams from 18 to 24. There is interest not only from traditional markets with an increase, for example, teams from Italy, Greece or Turkey, but also with the creation of new strong teams in cities with large populations and economic area, such as London or Paris, which currently do not have a representative capable of being competitive in such a demanding event.

The increase in teams will definitely make changes to the Euroleague system with the possible scenario of maintaining the all-against-all format with an extension of the duration of the championship instead of the old system in which teams were divided into groups and crossovers. according to the rating. It is clear that in order to revive the interest of fans and sponsors, it is necessary to carry out fundamental changes at many levels, and this is the direction in which Euroleague partners are moving.