By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
The partnership of FIBA and the NBA on the launch of a new top-flight European League is constantly gaining ground, with the International Basketball Federation and the National Basketball Association reaffirming intentions to start talks with prospective teams, but political resistance insists on countering the project, widely labeled as NBA Europe.
POLITICO recently shared updated opinions of European politicians.
“The main reason we don’t support NBA Europe is that closed leagues and competitions benefit only the top percent of the commercially successful clubs, but cause significant harm to the sport at national level,” explained one senior European government official.
“As policymakers, including at EU level, there is a clear duty to uphold the competition acquis, but also to give full weight to the wider EU values repeatedly underlined in court judgments, such as solidarity, openness, and fairness,” added EU Sports Commissioner Glenn Micallef. “The current debate suggests that this balance requires recalibration, placing greater emphasis on those values to safeguard the integrity of European sport and its pyramidal model.”
A couple of weeks ago, FIBA issued a press release on a meeting with Micallef.
“Current developments in European basketball highlight long-standing concerns around closed league models,” described Micallef. “They also invite reflection on the growing role of investment in sport, recognising that such investment can be welcome and beneficial provided it respects sound governance principles and remains aligned with Europe’s sporting values, traditions, and structures.”
“While breakaway competitions usually promise growth and stability, restricting open competition comes at the expense of national leagues and the wider sporting pyramid: a lesson other sports should consider carefully,” he furthered.
Also, Bogdan Zdrojewski, an MEP from the conservative European People’s Party group in the European Parliament, rejected any kind of financial domination from the United States in the European market.
“What about the governance and economic value?” he wondered. “It seems that with the NBA Europe these risk being siphoned out of Europe, leading to a lack of accountability on governance and a staggeringly high loss of economic value if we look at how the economic return — TV rights, sponsorships — generated in Europe will be systematically funneled to U.S.-based holding entities.”
“We need to look carefully at how the economic model is likely to lead to a corporate shift with traditional clubs being excluded in favor of global investment funds and state-backed clubs, who will be the only ones able to afford the prohibitive costs like the estimated $500 million to $1 billion founding franchise fees,” he added.
Current projections set 2027 as the start date for NBA Europe, confirmed by the secretary general of FIBA, Andreas Zagklis.