By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
It was an expected decision with a more than interesting background and here’s the full text of it. According to “Reuters” report from last month on the matter “the European Commission’s move could impact other sports and become as important a milestone as the landmark 1995 court ruling involving Belgian football player Jean-Marc Bosman, which paved the way for the free movement of players in the EU”.
The decision gives to a private league like EuroLeague the ability to operate in parallel with FIBA, the international federation of the sport, without the federation being able to sanction players or clubs for being part of the EuroLeague or the EuroCup, even if the two competitions are not under FIBA’s shield.
On the other hand, according to FIBA, it’s ECA (Euroleague Commercial Assets S.A.) and its clubs that are restricting players from competing in the national teams and accuses them of a boycott of the FIBA “windows”.
The fact remains that according to this ruling, FIBA can’t impose any kind of sanctions on EuroLeague or EuroCup clubs and players, just for being part of ECA’s competitions. However, it should be added that in the last two years, there’s no indication that FIBA intends to follow a strict line and use the extreme measure of punishment. And also in practice, a punishment was never imposed by FIBA during the whole debate with the EuroLeague.