In December 1992, I assume the Presidency of the Argentine Basketball Federation (CABB), and within the objectives that we had as an institution for the future was to work with the Argentinian association of Clubs. The Argentine Basketball Federation was going through a difficult situation because of the bankruptcy after the 1990 Basketball World Cup. We were under agreements with the creditors trying to fulfill our part, but at the same time we started working with the association of Argentine clubs, because we understood that our roles were different, professional basketball on one hand and the development and management of national teams in the other, but we had the same objective to work for the development of Argentine basketball.

In 1993, we held many meetings and talked about many issues, but one of the goals we had as a confederation was that we did not understand why Argentine leaders were not in the International level, positions that were occupied by Brazilian and Uruguayan leaders. We did not have a leader that really represented Argentine basketball at an international level, while believing that we were one of the best of the continent because of the potential we had, the development we had in the base, and our mini-basketball, where all players have to go through the regulation of the confederation to join the teams or clubs. Then we started to work and of course when we started talking to Argentine clubs, we also crossed over to talk to the Uruguayans and create more of a close relationship with the clubs.

We thought it was important to start working with the Brazilians and we saw the needs of the clubs, because at that time there was a South American Club Championship, that lasted a week at most, and that did not fulfill the desires of the clubs. In that process we started writing down things and setting ourselves goals for the future. In those objectives was to enter an Argentine leader at the international level and indeed we did very well, because on November 21, 1994, I was unanimously elected as President of the South American Confederation of Basketball and we began to work quickly, with my vice president Ivan Dobud from Chile and our Secretary General Ivan Dagnino of Peru.

With 10 federations and an executive committee made up of 4 people, we started to work, to see how we could implement all of our objectives, and also began to rethink our priorities from the Argentine Confederation. There were women’s tournaments were we only had 4 teams because of transportation costs, in the men’s tournament we never completed the ten teams and we started to create a competition where all of them could be involved and where the clubs could participate. It was very difficult at that time, because the south of South America worked with more unity than the North of South America, more precisely than with Colombia, with Venezuela, with whom we had no relationship and we only saw in official competitions.

I began to dazzle the plan of creating a league, but obviously we first needed to create a governance plan, a competition format and of course, to generate an economic plan to be able to sustain all of this ideas. We began to work parallel, from the theme of competition and it was essential to convince everyone of the idea. That was a very difficult stage, in which I asked for help from the National League of Argentina, in its Secretary General José Luis Otero and its President Eduardo Bazzi. We started traveling, Eduardo traveled to two countries and I to seven, with the objective of convincing them and that was really hard. It was difficult for them to understand the feasibility of their participation, specifically in Venezuela, which was always a very tight and short league. Their argument, was understandable, when we came up with a competition plan like the one that was presented with 16 teams and round-trip matches, it would be very difficult for them to travel. Their participation was essential for the competition and our desire was always of inclusion, a spirit that helped a lot.

I have always liked to give everyone an opportunity. I called all the clubs to a pre-registration, after talking to the leagues and started to work, adding ideas from everyone, because there were different idiosyncrasies and it was not easy. The Brazilians supported the idea, something that was important because Argentina and Brazil were the two most important leagues and without them the project was going to fail. They really helped me a lot, usually in the programming, because they had to suspend internal schedules of the leagues, in Brazil there was the league of Sao Pablo that played until December and was very powerful, and then the national league began in January, and was organized by the CBB. The organization and logistics of the competition was complex.

There were many important persons, including Antonio Chakmati, who was president of the Paulista Federation and Vice-President of the Brazilian Basketball Confederation, and was very knowledgeable about competitions. Sao Paulo was very powerful, is a very large state and within the organization had one of the most important competitions. All this, of course, with the support of the President at that time Jose Claudio Dos Reis, one of the most important directives on the continent and current member of the FIBA Hall of Fame. Together with José Claudio, was Federico Slinger from Uruguay and Jenaro "Tuto" Marchand from the International Federation in the Americas, who have always supported all the projects I presented. And in Argentina there was Rubén Rábano who dedicated himself to the coordination of the Liga Sudamericana. It is a front of support and collaboration that served as motor in the execution of the competition.

We started working in parallel and looking for economic resources. We had unexpectedly found a corporation in Mar del Plata, Argentina, which owned hotels, newspapers, tourism companies, which had guaranteed the start of the competition, but in the end it didn’t work, because there was familiar interferences within its structure.

We continued to work and then the people of Rotamund, who handled all the air tickets and had a lot of relationship with football put us in direct contact with Torneos y Competencias, the Argentine television channel. By their route the contact was made possible and we gave them the sale of TV rights. They confided in us and I traveled again to all the countries, to show all the plans to them and to summon them to a meeting in Buenos Aires, in the Hotel Colon, where all the teams that were going to play were present and that was fantastic. Again we gave them participation and we expressed clearly what the objectives were. We discussed article by article the regulations, we involved them and we compromised them for the future. Having a television broadcast, we needed guarantees of success and for this the union between the clubs was essential. We went from an idea to achieving something historic. Thus was born the Liga Sudamericana.

The National League of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Dimayor of Chile, Colombia, Peru Venezuela and Uruguay were key in the birth of the league. There were historic clubs such as Trotamundos de Carabobo from Venezuela of German Blanco who were pioneers, as was the Peruvian club Regatas Lima, and its national federations. It was a historic collective effort in our region.

The league started and it was fantastic. The first champion was Olimpia de Venado Tuerto in 1996, who beat Corinthians of Brazil. 20 years ago. And from there we started working with FIBA. Before I entered the CABB I knew what FIBA was, but it had no relation with the organization. The following year I traveled to Munich, and met Mr. Boris Stankovich (Secretary General) and we agreed that the European Champion (Panatinaikos) would play with the South American champion, which meant the return of the Intercontinental Cup, which was not played since 1987. It was played in a play-off series, first in Rosario because Olimpia de Venado Tuerto didn’t have a stadium and it was incredible how many people there were. The team from Argentina won. Lucas Victoriano, Federico Kammerichs and Alejandro Montecchia played for Olimpia. They won in Argentina and went on to play the second and third match in Athens, where Panatinaikos won both, to be crowned Intercontinental Champion.

The Liga Sudamericana has given many South American countries, which previously had no internal competitions, the opportunity of having their representatives play. The objective was always to help reduce the sports levels between countries, aware that the responsibility for this development would fall into the internal work of each federation, league, and club. That is why it was a great effort, we wanted the 10 countries to be strong, and because to strengthen a country its neighbors need to have good competition to compete and the clubs were instrumental in that development from start to bottom. Unfortunately in that time there was no youth development in many countries, so it was a logical slow process of growth or sometimes it was stagnant, so this enabled the ten countries.

We boosted the products, not only the Liga Sudamericana, but also the South American National Teams Tournament by the arrangement of the schedules. All that was because of the benefits of each national league. Then, when we had a great product in the South American Championships, we were able to allocate a large part of the income to the national federations and with that money we started to pay air tickets for all youth and adult tournaments. The Liga Sudamericana boosted the national championships, helped developed basketball in South America. We achieved our goal.

The Liga Sudamericana turns 20 and I'm really happy. I will always support the competition and I am very grateful to the current leaders, the President of the South American Basketball Association Mr. Gerasime Bozikis and his Secretary General Mr. Marcelo Bedoya, who made the decision to give the Champion Cup my name, In recognition of my person as founder of the League. I hope to be able to give out the cup every year and to celebrate all the clubs, players, leagues and leaders who have contributed to the competition.

Horacio Muratore
FIBA President