By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach called upon National Olympic Committees to work with their governments to defend the “European sports model”, using the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague as a bad example.
In a meeting of the European Olympic Committees executive committee, Bach expressed concern that governments and the European Union (EU) viewed the existing model in the same manner as commercial bodies. “Our engagement in sport is based on solidarity, inclusivity and is based on the engagement of millions of volunteers across our continent,” he said.
Bach became even more specific in the case of Basketball: “Sports organizations, based on volunteers and social engagement, are being treated like any commercial sports organizers who wish to pick the cherries of the sport. They just want to harvest the fruits of the trees you have planted and nurtured over so many years. They treat sport like any goods in life and speak of free trade and engagement. This is putting many of our sports organizations into trouble. We see this with the European basketball league and the way it intrudes into the work of European basketball and makes it almost impossible to organize national team events”.
It should be noted, however, that the EU has already ruled against the International Skating Union for banning athletes who competed in a private event, as a breach of EU anti-trust laws, and must be changed. There’s also a similar feud between the NHL, which kept its athletes from competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics and also between the International Swimming Federation and the rival, privately owned, International Swimming League.
According to Bach, the IOC distributes 90 per cent of its income. “If we give up or are forced to give up this model we will land on a purely market-based model which means the financing of these smaller sports and younger athletes will become extremely difficult, if not impossible”.
Meanwhile, according to the German magazine “Der Spiegel” the top European football clubs have held secret talks to create a European Super League, in a model very similar to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.