Following the agreement adopted by the Standing Conference of FIBA that met this weekend in Germany, the ULEB states its position in the following terms:

1.- The ULEB regrets the decision taken by the Federations, which has prevented the competitions from reaching unification under FIBA’s structure.

2.- The ULEB rejects as false the argument used to justify the FIBA assembly’s vote against the agreement with the ULEB. It is not true that clubs coming from the Suproleague were going to be discriminated against in relation to the EUROLEAGUE clubs in any aspect. On the economic question in particular, the adaptation of the distribution model to the new situation with 32 clubs was to be determined by an identical criteria for all, with complete transparency, as has been explained over the last few weeks at several meetings with these clubs. What the ULEB could not and will not accept, in any case, are the private economic agreements like those that two Suproleague clubs had the previous season.

3.- The ULEB wishes to maintain the spirit of the agreement signed on April 4th, and with that in mind, is preparing a competition under the terms of the agreement and will proceed to invite all the clubs (the 29 clubs already classified plus 3 to be determined through a preseason qualifying tournament) that were entitled to participate in the 2001/2002 EUROLEAGUE. As in the previous season, the ULEB understands that the Leagues and clubs are those which have to take the appropriate option and completely respects their freedom to decide.

4.- The ULEB will approve next Friday the sports, finance and marketing programmes for the coming season. In no case does it accept either a new renegotiation or a discussion on the agreement for the extraordinary meeting of the Standing Conference scheduled for July 7th, because the demands of a high level competition are incompatible with these deadlines.

5.- The ULEB has negotiated in good faith with its institutional interlocutor, FIBA. The negotiation is finished and will not be resumed with any other commission. Nevertheless, it is ULEB’s wish to maintain an institutional dialogue with FIBA and the ULEB will explain its project and its ideas to the clubs that wish to form part of the EUROLEAGUE.

For further information, please contact:

ULEB Media and Marketing
Tel: +34 93 327 84 27
Fax: +34 93 327 84 24