Dubai wants to form a team to win the Euroleague
- November 30, 2022
- 0 comments
- Euroleague
- Posted in ENGLISH
Can a team from Dubai take part in the Euroleague ? This question would have gotten a resounding no for an answer a few years ago, but today we are facing a very real possibility. Less than two months ago, the intention of the city in the United Arab Emirates to have a team in the highest continental basketball competition, become its main sponsor and host three consecutive editions of the Final Four . The Euroleague Commercial Assets (ECA) acknowledged the contacts but spoke of “potential collaboration” and said it was “too early to discuss specific issues.” The truth is that, as Mundo Deportivo has learned, Dubai is already working to form a super team as soon as possibleand thus dispel the main doubt that the managers of the competition could harbor. Those responsible for the Dubai project have already contacted several of the most important agents in European basketball to convey their intentions. And they don’t want to build a team from the scraps or discards of other teams. They sting high, very high. To the point of asking only for big stars and high-priced players. It is what it has to have a budget of about 40 million euros , an amount that only Real Madrid and Barça reach in the Euroleague .With the difference that in Spain that amount is gross and subject to tax (around 45% in the case of players and coaches) and in Dubai it is practically net. Dubai’s arrival on the scene, if confirmed, could completely alter the balance of power in European basketball. Renewing a franchise player who is out of contract can now be an impossible task for teams. Not even players with a current contract will be left out of the market given the economic potential of the Asian project, which can pay termination clauses if necessary. The Micic , Larkin , Tavares , Mirotic , James or Sloukas are in the crosshairs, that is the target in which Dubai moves.
To get a license for his team from the Euroleague and the organization of the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Final Four, Dubai puts on the table an argument in which it has no rival: money. The offer is to become the main sponsor of the competition through Emirates Airlines , with a contract that would multiply several times the income reported by the agreement with Turkish Airlines, current main partner of the Euroleague, which pays around 10 million euros per year. There is talk of a figure that could reach 50 million euros per year . The Euroleague already knows in broad strokes the outlines of the Dubai project and is willing to study it in depth when a formal proposal arrives. At a logistical level, the Dubai fit is very complicated , since the distances with the rest of the teams are enormous (the Madrid-Dubai flight is more than 8 hours ) and it is not easy to justify the step from the point of view of tradition or sporting merit. The Turkish Airlines contract also expires in 2025. But, on the other hand, the teams forced the recent departure of Jordi Bertomeu as CEO in large part due to his discontent with the disappointing volume of income. Many clubs will surely be for the job of fitting Dubai in any way.
Djokovic’s younger brother and an assistant to Pesic in Girona Djordje Djokovic , younger brother of the tennis player Novak Djokovic, is one of the intermediaries that is acting as a bridge between the Dubai project and those responsible for the Euroleague. Djordje, who did not get very far with the racket, is at 27 years old the director of the Serbian Open that is held at the Novak Tennis Center in Belgrade. In the group photo he is the third from the bottom row starting from the right. Dejan Kamanjaseviche feels almost as Catalan as he is Bosnian, having arrived in Girona as a teenager. In Akasvayu he was assistant to Svetislav Pesic and then second to Zan Tabak in Baskonia. Years ago he went to Dubai to work with Zoran Savic at the basketball Prestige Star Sport Academy. He is also behind the arrival of a Dubaiti millionaire to the presidency of Marbella de LEB Plata. He is the first from the bottom right in the group photo”Bombshell” by “Mundo Deportivo”: Dubai wants a team of “stars” in the Euroleague and is sponsoring 50 million euros! A publication by “Mundo Deportivo” drops a “bombshell” on the Euroleague, after stating that Dubai wishes to participate with a team in the competition, putting 50 million euros on the table as sponsorship for the League! Another chapter in the opening of the Euroleague in Dubai, with “Mundo Deportivo” detonating the… bomb, since, as it states, an amount five times that of Turkish Airlines is being laid at the feet of the organization, reaching 10 million euros. Dubai’s offer is a pressure measure for the Euroleague to accept the participation of a team from the country, which, however, will not have a supporting role, since it aspires to throw money and acquire the “cream of the crop” of European basketball. The project is certainly not easy, but as the publication mentions, already people from Dubai, in addition to the meeting that took place a short time ago, are continuing contacts with the Euroleague on how it will be possible to add a team from Dubai to the organization. In addition, the holding of the final phase of the Euroleague in Dubai has also fallen on the table, but not just for one season, but for three consecutive Final Fours.
“Dubai wants a Euroleague team with… Sluka, Micic, Mirotic, Tavares” A Spanish publication reports that the processes to create a “super team” in the Euroelague have already begun in Dubai! In particular, “Mundo Deportivo” cites its own sources and explains that the first procedures have already begun in Dubai in order to create a team with a “clean” budget that will reach and exceed 40 million euros! In fact, he mentions that contacts have already been made with agents and agents of European basketball, as well as that they do not intend to “hit” second-class players, but to make proposals to the most expensive ones on the market! If nothing else, if something like this happens, it is expected that the balance will change and the map of the Euroleague will be completely shaped . Among other things, he refers to specific names that have already made the rounds in Dubai , including Kostas Slukas, Mike James, Nikola Mirotic, Eddie Tavares, Shane Larkin and Vasilije Micic ! From there, it will put Dubai on the table and host the Final 4 for 2024, 2025 and 2026, as it has all the resources to respond financially. Finally in the offer they want to become the main sponsor of Euroelague after the end of the contract with Turkish Airlines offering 50 million euros per year! It should be noted that last month there was a meeting in Dubai between the 13 shareholders of ECA , where the CEO of Euroleague, Marshall Glickman, had left open the possibility of expanding the organization to the United Arab Emirates.