FIBA Europe sent a letter "to the rebel national basketball federations that want to continue playing in the Euroleague and not the competition organized by FIBA," according to EL CONFIDENCIAL. The body announced that "eight teams will be excluded from EuroBasket 2017, and warned six others." The countries banned from the competition are Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Russia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Lithuania, Italy, Greece, Israel, Poland and Turkey were the federations that received warnings. FIBA Europe is accusing the Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB) of "supporting or participating in anti-sporting practices that are contrary to the rules of competition and the principles of FIBA and FIBA Europe." The European body "has now followed through on a threat that it had been brandishing in recent weeks." It will "now look for an int'l agreement with the aim of excluding all those national teams from this year's Olympics." In addition, FIBA Europe "has reportedly asked" FIBA to repeat the pre-Olympic draw to "separate the involved countries and replace them." FIBA's decision "would also force Spain to lose the right to host the FIBA Women's World Cup in '18, as FIBA is not open to the tournament being held in a country that is in favor of the Euroleague" (EL CONFIDENCIAL, 4/16). A copy of the letter from FIBA is available here.
KIRILENKO SPEAKS OUT: EL MUNDO reported "for some time there has been an open war" between FIBA Europe and the Euroleague. It has "now seen national federations affected, including Spain's." The "problem with this move by FIBA is that Spanish Basketball League (ACB) teams are the ones that signed with the Euroleague for '17, not the FEB, which is seeing its interests threatened." Russian Basketball Federation President Andrei Kirilenko called for FIBA and the Euroleague "to not involve national federations in the conflict over the competitions." Kirilenko: "This is primarily a problem of FIBA and the Euroleague. And the two organizations should resolve this between themselves. ... Before this critical situation, we all have to make concessions. But as of today, from what I see, no one is willing to do this" (EL MUNDO, 4/16).
NEXT STEPS: The AP reported FIBA has "raised the stakes" by suggesting Spain "could lose its 2016 Olympics place." FIBA said Sunday that its exec committee meeting next weekend "will discuss the possibility of taking decisions in relation to worldwide events." These include the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where 2012 Silver Medalist Spain has already qualified, "and Olympic qualifying tournaments in July, including two hosted by Serbia and Italy" (AP, 4/17).
FEB PREPARES RESPONSE: AS reported the FEB will present by Wednesday a response to being expelled from Eurobasket 2017 (AS, 4/16). In Madrid, J.I. Pinilla reported the FEB "will argue that the decision to align with the Euroleague was taken exclusively by the ACB, without any intervention by the FEB" (AS, 4/17). The EFE reported ACB President Francisco Roca called the move by FIBA "radically disproportionate, unfair, and unfounded." Roca said in a statement, "The ACB makes itself available to the FEB to help elaborate on the appropriate response to reverse this decision. ... This seems absolutely out of proportion" (EFE, 4/17). SPORT reported Euroleague President Jordi Bertomeu said of the measure by FIBA, "It is surprising. Incredible. Whoever sanctions the federations is someone who wants to end basketball. FIBA has an alternative to the Euroleague and has not convinced clubs to go with them. It is surprising that they have decided to sanction the federations" (SPORT, 4/16).
LITHUANIA DOWNPLAYS NEWS: The IANS reported the Lithuanian Basketball Federation (LKF) announced that the country has not yet been excluded from EuroBasket 2017. LKF Secretary General Mindaugas Spokas said, "I'd like to calm the basketball society a bit -- no one has excluded Lithuanian team from the 2017 European basketball championship." LKF PR Head Linas Kunigelis "played down the talks" that Lithuania may be excluded from Eurobasket 2017. Kunigelis: "The talks that someone can be disqualified automatically are more of the theoretical level so far" (IANS, 4/17).
