Paris (AFP)

Eleven of the eighteen teams participating in the 2020-21 edition of the Euroleague have a permanent license which guarantees them participation from one season to another regardless of their results, a closed club in which Villeurbanne should return from next season.

Friday evening, the president of the organizing body of the flagship event of European basketball, Jordi Bertomeu announced that an "agreement in principle" had been reached for Asvel to obtain a permanent license.

The formalization of the final validation of this agreement could take place by the end of February-beginning of March.

Among the eleven current teams with this so-called A license, three are Spanish (Real Madrid, Barcelona and Vitoria), two Greek (Olympiakos, Panathinaikos), two Turkish (Efes Istanbul and Fenerbahce), one Israeli (Maccabi Tel-Aviv), one Lithuanian (Kaunas), one Russian (CSKA Moscow) and one Italian (Milan).

Villeurbanne and Bayern Munich have benefited from an invitation, or wild card, since 2019, for two seasons.

The five remaining places are allocated to the winner of the Eurocup of the previous season (Valencia), to the winners of the German Leagues (Berlin, because Bayern, champion, was already qualified), Russian (Khimki Moscow, because CSKA Moscow, champion, was already qualified) and Adriatic (Red Star Belgrade), plus a wild card for Saint Petersburg.

One of the criteria for granting the permanent license is the ability for a club to play its home matches in a hall accommodating at least 10,000 spectators.

The Euroleague, or "EuroLeague" in English, created in 2000, signed in November 2015 a partnership contract with the sports rights giant IMG: it covers ten years and IMG has undertaken to invest 630 million euros over the period for marketing and broadcasting the event on television.

IMG expected in 2015 overall revenues for clubs of 900 million euros, but that was before the coronavirus pandemic which led to the cancellation of the 2019-20 edition after the regular season.

For the current edition, each team, regardless of its results, should cash 1.5 million euros if it has a long-term license or 500,000 euros if it does not.

Added to this is a performance bonus ranging from 150,000 euros, for the 14th in the regular phase, which then progresses according to the classification to reach 1.5 M EUR for the winner.

./jr/dep

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