Canceling the last edition was one of those blows from which it is difficult to get up, but finally, this Thursday the Euroleague returns. The always intrepid Jordi Bertomeu had no choice but to make "the worst decision" of his extensive career as a leader, collapsed by the inconveniences: borders, calendars and confinements. And see how others did manage to finish (Champions, NBA, ACB ...). Aware that it is going to be a season full of uncertainties due to the pandemic, the president of the highest continental competition explains to EL MUNDO the sports and economic measures adopted, the protocols and also the efforts with which all clubs must advance.
Was it the most difficult summer of your career? Yes.
It was difficult to stop, and making the decision not to finish the Euroleague was tremendous.
We arrived at the beginning with the same problems and with high levels of uncertainty, a very changing environment - Israel closed last week, for example - and 15 countries involved. The Champions League, UEFA, the ACB ... ended;
the NBA is on it.
Why not the Euroleague? I have thought about it a lot, it was the worst decision of my life.
And at the same time, being horrible, it was the best.
Because, with the exception of the Champions League, the others were domestic competitions.
In June, nobody could leave Russia, in Milan it was forbidden to train 'indoor'.
The NBA decided to play on other dates and will start the next one in January, which means that they will not be able to participate in the Games.
And nothing happens.
You can imagine what would happen if we did that.
The Champions, the closest thing to us, organized its bubble with five countries, not 15. And in August, when everyone was more relaxed.
But the final big problem was borders.
Without them, of course we would have played. What kind of situations have been the most difficult to solve now? The puzzle, all hypothetical situations are foreseen.
If a club is going to play in a country where quarantine is required, all the scenarios are opened for the times that we can delay the game, place it in another country ... We will provide pavilions to play on neutral ground, airlines with flights charter available to clubs ... If we go into detail, we never finish.
Think, for example, of the referees.
We have 72 from a lot of countries.
Combining them is also a high-level algebra problem.
We shouldn't be surprised if we see a Frenchman refereeing a French team.
Because we will see things that we have never seen.
And we must understand them. Another example: if a country, let's say Spain, gets out of control and is prevented from traveling here ... Who loses the game? For a team to lose 20-0 it has to be something radical and serious and after having exhausted all roads.
In that example, a neutral site would be searched, for example Ljubljana.
Each covers the costs in halves.
Something more complicated: if the Slovenian government prohibits receiving that team.
We would try to relocate it again.
We have introduced flexibility mechanisms to find solutions.
But not 'ad infinitum'.
And it cannot be that a club uses this because it has three injuries.
If after three postponements it has not been possible to play, the responsible team would lose.
UEFA, for example, is much stricter. The calendar, already overloaded, will it give of itself? It will be a puzzle.
The calendar has always been a problem, if there are many parties dancing, waiting to be relocated, it will demand more flexibility.
We have to assume that arguments like: I don't want to play this Tuesday because on Thursday I have a game against a very strong team.
We have put the criterion of first available date.
If not, we can find ourselves with a bag of matches out there waiting. If the situation becomes unsustainable, are there other formats planned, bubble type? Yes, the experience of the summer helped us.
We had the bubble ready: the country, the pavilions, the hospitals, the hotels and the transport.
Everything organized.
And we contemplate that possibility, the general blockade.
Plan B will be to finish as we can what remains to equal the number of matches and go to the next phase to finish the season, there will be matches with a large audience and completely empty halls ... It depends on each country and in some cases each region .
In Germany, from the lands.
France, Italy and Germany will soon have fans.
In Lithuania, at least 50%.
Those who can take advantage of it will be less bad for them.
The Spanish are going to take time, from what I'm seeing.
Sometimes it is difficult to understand the criteria.
Little by little we have to be daring, not irresponsible. How does the Euroleague survive the economic blow? We reduced revenue by 30%, but we managed to not impact the clubs so much, only 13%, and save the furniture.
We negotiate with the sponsors and the televisions and I am happy.
There has been no cancellation, there are going to be contract extensions.
There has been great loyalty and understanding, because we have all suffered. Will it be sportingly, as you warned, the best season ever?
We left him in such a sweet, beautiful moment ... That only opened the wound.
The backbone of the teams has remained stable, Milan has been strengthened a lot ... There is the specific case of Campazzo, we do not know how it can end.
But I want to warn you that games without an audience are not the same thing. When the initial honk sounds in the first game, will you feel relief? I don't think the word is relief, because we are going to have many incidents.
Normality is going to be different.
But we are all looking forward to it, players, coaches ... Since 1982 I didn't have that long without competition.
I'm not used to it.
All this extreme and unprecedented situation, can it serve to bring positions together with FIBA at once? We have both had to cancel competitions.
It should help us, because there are things that will take time to go back to the way they were before.
In the calendars there is little journey, because the Euroleague is not going to play fewer games.
It would go against sporting and economic logic.
When the cycle is over, they will have to see if the Windows thing is going to stick.
And at some point the number of competitions will have to be put on the table.
It makes no sense to have four in Europe, with the economic crisis to come.
There are competitions that have no purpose and are betrayed.
You cannot say that the Champions League is a competition of sporting merits and then sign contracts for years with clubs.
The Euroleague is not only a competition of sporting merit, that is clear.
Others have to know what they are.
And when the situation with the pandemic is fixed, what? The plans have not changed.
The clubs must be stabilized.
At this level of financial effort, you can't convince someone to invest with the uncertainty of whether a ball goes in or out to follow next year.
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