In Swedish basketball, several clubs have wrestled with enormous financial problems in recent years.
For example, Uppsala Basket laid down its men's business less than a year ago, and went bankrupt a few months later.
"The purpose is obvious"Sundsvall Dragons, Swedish champion both in 2009 and 2011, also went bankrupt a few years ago - and there is still a legal aftermath.
In addition, AIK's ladies in 2018 were told that they could not continue playing due to the poor economy.
The Swedish Basketball Association has now made a decision which they hope can cause the above problems to be repeated in the future. They, like so many other sports, have an elite license.
- The very purpose is self-evident: It is to protect the associations, many of these associations also have a very nice breadth of activities. This has been very positive as there has been a total consensus that this is necessary, says the association's secretary general Johan Stark to SVT Sport, and admits that one reason they decided to introduce the elite license is that there have been several clubs that have been falling apart for the past decade:
- Absolutely. After all, we have had associations with fine businesses that have been really volatile and have even been overthrown. So we have to do something, there was a consensus on that.
The elite license is introduced from the 2021-22 season and applies to the two high-school majors, as well as the gentlemen's superior.