Transcription of Jordi Bertomeu's interview with Israelsport

Roni Cohen of Israelsport.co.il interviewed Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu.

This is the transcription in English of the interview Cohen made with Spanish high profile manager.

There are any positives changes you saw last season in the Euroleague?

We are very satisfied with the whole season as we have experienced record increases in audience numbers across-the-board for the Turkish Airlines Euroleague in every platform, from arena attendance to television, from online to mobile. 

We have experienced an increase in net revenues of 8.7% as compared to the previous season the average attendance per game during the whole season has raised a 10%, we have broken our all time Television coverage bringing for the first time the Turkish Airlines Euroleague to 201 countries through 52 networks and our on-line platforms (euroleague.net, Twitter, Facebook,Youtube…) have experienced a solid growth. The two competition system decisions taken a year ago, Top 16 new format with more games and games on Friday, proved to be successful and we can proudly say they have consolidated amongst our fans.

What do you thinking about the great wining of Maccabi in the trophy last season?

Maccabi´s performance during the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four wasperfect, they brought us a thrilling semifinal against CSKA Moscow decided by Tyrese Rice shot and an incredible Final between the two best teams of the season. I would also like to highlight all the help and support that the team received form the Maccabi fans, the atmosphere during the Final Four was something that can´t be explained with words.

Talking generally about the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four held in Milan, I have to say that we are extremely satisfied; we saw four outstanding games in a sold –out arena with an incredible atmosphere. Besides the games the Fan Zone was a completely success with more than a 250.000 visitants and the rest of Parallel eventslike the Nike International Junior Tournament were also visited by a high number of fans.

Don’t you think you should do series instead of the Final Four?  in the last 3 years, the les talented team won the title. What are you thinking about it? Is that fair?

The Final Four is the most important moment of the season a consolidated event that does not only gather the interest of the fans of the qualified teams but of all basketball fans around the world, with high economic and mediainterest and we are obliged to evaluate the decisions we take based on all the concepts involved. With that said I personally think that the concept of fairness can´t be on doubt moreover using subjective arguments like the talent of a team. We shouldn´t forget that any team reaching the final phase has played between 27 and 29 games against the best teams of the continent during the whole season, which seems without a doubt a proof of the competitiveness and talent of the team.

Don’t you think there is a need to change the policy of the participating team in the Euroleague? There are teams that not in the Euroleague level when in the other hand there are a teams who are. I understand you want the Euroleague keep being global but don’t you think adding a strong teams instead of bad ones will make the league much more interesting?

The main definition of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague is organizing the best basketball competition with the best teams in Europe and so far we havealways fulfilled that premise. As an International competition we must have representatives of different countries and I to say that besides the obviousdifferences between the Domestic Leagues of each country, the teams participating every year in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague have an undoutbful competitive level.

The Euroleague management just approved recently that in the next years the 3 top places of the eurocup will be join the euroleage. Can you tell us more about that? Maybe this is the solution to myprevious question?

The steps toward a consolidated club competitions structure were approved by the board  and presented in the shareholders meeting held last July . Thi spath  seeks to give all stakeholders - clubs, owners, sponsors, players, domestic leagues and fans alike - an easily understood framework that brings more long-term stability and fairness. Euroleague Basketball is working on a new strategic plan with two very clear stages, that within other areas, will modify the current License access system and, on a later stage, also the competition structure.

To transition towards this model, a new system would enter in force for the 2015-16 season, which would replace the current country ranking that allocates B-Licences by guaranteeing fixed spots for domestic leagues to qualify for the Turkish Airlines Euroleague creating a simpler system, that evolves the current one making it easier for all bodies as teams won´t be waiting for other countries’ results to understand if they will get a spot in the next Euroleague due to country ranking

Euroleague Basketball will also seek an agreement with domestic leagues to homogenize basketball rules, calendars, player eligibility and financial fair play, amongst others.

The second step of this project is creating a pyramidal structure that moves from domestic leagues through the Eurocup to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague respecting a European sports culture that values competitive results and the basic principle of Euroleague Basketball, “the best teams of the continent”, giving stability to the teams investing in a long-term project and mirroring the time-honored European sports structure promotion and relegation. This second step has still some details under study as for example the number of teams promoting and relegating. I would like to highlight thatThe pyramid model will be as open or closed as any existing Domestic League that includes promotion and relegation, so the majority of them as of today. Any system in which a number of clubs will change every year is by definition an open league. This is the traditional European league model in place in most sports and most countries across the continent. The current system is not a closed league either, this season we have eight different clubs compared to last season including four clubs that have never participated in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague before.

How do you summarizes the call that any tean who was eliminated from the regular season of the euroleague joined the Eurocup? Was it a success?

It was a positive initiative and goes towards our final goal of creating a European League, with that measure we give a second chance to the eliminated teams, increase the number of games that they will be playing in European competition and increase the general level of the second European competition, the Eurocup.

Adding more games to the top 16 were a huge success. Have you thinking about adding more games to the league? There is any more changes you want to do in that area?

Starting the 2015 -16 season, all the changes that will be introduce will be focused in creating the pyramidal structure but in the whole process until we reach this ultimate system I do not see any competition system change. Once the last phase of the new system isintroduced we will need to make some adjustments that may involve the number of games but we are still considering all the details, for example we want to evaluate the impact that the Competition System has in order to keep promoting solid, long term projects while maintaining the best performing clubs over a number of seasons from across the continent.

Two years ago you were approved the financial fair play to the Euroleague. Can you tell us more about it? From which season it will be starting? What makes you take that call?

The actual situation that we witness in many of our clubs is an unbalanced budget between revenues and expenses and also a high percentage of the budget covered by shareholders. Our intention is that this unbalanced budget receives a bigger contribution from the regular activities of the club, ticketing, media rights, sponsorship, marketing  guaranteeing a long term stability to the clubs. In 2012 the Euroleague Commercial Assets Board approved the Financial Fair Play for Euroleague which play rules work on concepts, based on budgeted economic performance indicators that have been extracted from the information submitted by clubs, include a minimum budget for those clubs that participate in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague competition; a maximum loss allowed over a three-year period; a limit to player expenses and shareholder´s contributions related to the overall budget; and a common approach in the treatment of some investment write-offs and in the market value of some sponsorship and advertising revenues.We are in the middle of the implementation process with our clubs, and the rules should fully enter in force in the season 15/16, begin progressively more and more strict.

Don’t you worry it will make indirectly a salary cup in europe and as a result team will pay less for players, that will leave to higher salary in others leagues?

I honestly don´t think that the Financial Fair Play rules will have that impact, the NBA for example has a salary cap and players remain in the League, the Champions League also has Final Fair Play rules that limit the shareholder´s contributions and they continue being as competitive as always. I would like to specify that all the measures that we willtake are for the good of the teams and players, we seek to improve the stability of the projects as we have seen during the last years dramatic cases of teams with economic problems and Euroleague Basketball cannot take the risk of having a participating team that does not fulfil the minimum economic requirements to participate in the competition.

What are you thinking about the Chinese league that is bringing a very good players to their league? Are you worry that they are "stealing" a good players with a huge salary, players that could play in Europe?

I don´t see the Chinese League as a competitor for the players, besides there are several cases of Euroleague Basketball players that choose that option, but I wouldn´t consider it dramatic. We have been collaboration and developing a project in China since 2007 organizing friendly game between Chines teams and Euroleague Basketball teams, developing professional exchanges of coaches, clinics and a large list of activities, as we consider China a huge market where the European Basketballcan bring and share its way of understanding basketball.

How do you feel with leaving of European talents to the nba?

I believe the main problem is not that players go away, because they go and come back, too. We have to grow and make Euroleague Basketball attractive enough that they don't go away. That's our job. Our main concern in that aspect is not if players go away but when players go to the NBA, this is the main point that we consider should be evaluated as in some cases players make this change too soon which is something that makes a negative impact in their careers.

We saw this summer that 3 coaches moved to the nba. What are you thinking about it? Are you proud that europeancoaches make it and joined to the NBA?

I think that there are two factors that should be evaluated when talking about not only coaches but also players going to the NBA. First of all is the globalization of basketball and of our society, in the global expansion of the NBA one of the key actions was increasing the number of players coming from different countries;the other factor that we should also take into account is the progressive improvement of the basketball level in traditional basketball regions like Europe but also in other parts of the world as South-America, Asia or Australia, making the gap between the NBA and the rest of competitions smaller.  I would personally like to wish the best of the luck to David in this new project that I am confident will be successful.

What are you thinking about the work that coach Blatt done in Maccabi and about his amazing situation now by having this so talented team as a head coach?

David has been one of the greatest coaches in Europe the last years and the Euroleague title won in Milan was another confirmation of his success and professionalism. In my opinion the most important characteristic is that Davidmixed key values like team effort, sacrifice and talent to forge a team where all the players had a clear role and with a winning mentality.

You just return from the Intercontinental cup. Whats are the odds that all the continental champion will participate in this tournament in the future?

We would be more than happy to participate in that project as we have done during the last two seasons with the Intercontinental Cup, but we must be realistic and I do not think that we will be able to watch it in the near future. First of all we have a calendar problem, every year is more difficult to find a spot for these kind of competitions. Another reason would be the impossibility of having each continent champion, as it is very difficult that the NBA takes part in this kind of games as they have a completely different economic and organizational reality, a fact that will make that hypothetic competition something without a real sense, a fake, the Intercontinental Cup on the other hand is something fair, clear, the Champion of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague against the Champion of Ligade Las Americas.

In the past there were a trial by somepowerfull team to create a middle east league in addition to the Euroleague (so they can play in 3 leagues). Why the Euroleague declined that?

Euroleague Basketball has always supported any kind of initiatives that we considered serious and positive for the growth of basketball. We have a fruitful collaboration with the Adriatic League or the VTB League, Leagues that gather teams from different countries to create a parallel competition that complements the Domestic League. We consider that these kind of initiatives are positive in the countries with a weak Domestic League, that way the general interest of basketball increases but lose its sense in countries with a strong Domestic League, for example I don´t see any similar project being developed with Spanish, German or French teams.

What are you thinking about the big project of Hapoel Jerusalem and they newmanagment? Do you think they (jerusalem) can be an Euroleague team? How much time you can assume it will take?

We are aware of the project that Hapoel Jerusalem with Mr. Ori Allon is working on and we are really happy but also waiting. We are happy to see that new basketball projects rise in Europe, and by projects I not only mean good teams but arena project, serious and professional administration and executives this is a 360 long term project that makes the team grow to finally have the chance to participate in the top European competition. Regarding the possibility that they may participate in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague its is very soon to evaluate but I will say the same that we say to all the teams with this aspiration, that this depend on them, Euroleague Basketball has always welcomed the best teams of the continent with solid long term projects.

What new things we will see in the coming Euroleague season?

This year we have 8 new teams compared to last season edition (Cedevita Zagreb, Dinamo Banco di Sardegna Sassari, CSP Limoges, Neptunas Klaipeda, Nizhny Novgorod, PGE Turow, Valencia Basket) and 5 teams that have never participated in the competition (Dinamo Banco di Sardegna Sassari, CSP Limoges, Neptunas Klaipeda, Nizhny Novgorod, PGE Turow). We will have several new things this year a full new arenas illumination uniformity focusing on the court to give all the attention to the game, we will have a different teams presentation and we will also launch a global campaign during the season that was recorded with the collaboration of the players.