By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Zvezdan Terzic, president of the Crvena Zvezda Sports Society and general director of the club’s F.C. department described EuroLeague as a “second-class competition” for basketball because it’s not the top championship for basketball on the planet, the way the UEFA Champions League is when it comes to football.
“The EuroLeague in basketball is a second-class competition. The best players are in the NBA, while in football they are in the Champions League,” Terzic said in an interview with RTS while commenting on the difficulty of having a competitive football team on a European level. “I say this as the president of the Crvena Zvezda Sports Association. When you play basketball with Real and Barcelona, you play against clubs with twice the budget. In basketball, you become the European champion with 35 million euros, while in football, you can’t even win the Conference League. Clubs with a budget of 800 million euros will be waiting for us in the Champions League. These things are incomparable.”
“Basketball in Europe is played at a serious level in several countries. In Spain, Greece, Turkey, Serbia… And nowhere else,” Terzic added.
The basketball team of Crvena Zvezda has been doing a major investment this summer, employing the biggest budget in the club’s history ahead of the new season. The Serbian powerhouse has signed several notable EuroLeague free agents, including Milos Teodosic, Shabazz Napier, Rokas Giedraitis, Mike Tobey and Adam Hanga.