No sense of entitlement in BCL - you have to earn it
VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - We are a little more than two weeks away from having a fifth winner of the Basketball Champions League.
The BCL, which is a partnership of the leagues and FIBA, launched in 2016 under the mantra of being an open competition based on sporting principles.
While two of the winners have come from Spain (Lenovo Tenerife and Hereda San Pablo Burgos), one from Greece (AEK) and one from Italy (Virtus Bologna), the doors have been open to all teams in all European countries and remain so.
AEK capped a riveting run to the second Basketball Champions League title with a win in Athens
Clubs all have a chance to first qualify for the BCL on sporting merit and then, if they reach the regular season, make a run at the title.
We've been reminded this week how important sporting principles are to fans in Europe following the announcement in football that a Super League made up of several famous clubs had been formed. Those running the clubs no longer wanted to be guided by sporting principles, but profit.
Their aim would no longer be to play in Europe's elite competition, the UEFA Champions League, but to instead compete against each other with JP Morgan, an investment bank, pouring billions of dollars into the operation and thus infusing the founding member clubs with riches.
The backlash was swift and immediate.
"IT IS NOT A SPORT WHERE SUCCESS IS ALREADY GUARANTEED OR IT IS NOT A SPORT WHEN IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE YOU LOSE."
Fans felt betrayed.
Even while their own clubs were included in the competition, supporters of Liverpool and Chelsea protested.
Their vision of competition, a belief in fair play and the sense that all clubs should have a chance to play in Europe's elite club competition, had been violated.
Those protesting Liverpool and Chelsea fans respected, for example, the achievement of Leicester City, a Premier League club in England that pulled off a remarkable run to the title several years ago and earned a place in the Champions League.
Manchester City were among the clubs set to be in the Super League, too, yet their manager, Pep Guardiola, stated plainly: "It is not a sport where success is already guaranteed or it is not a sport when it doesn't matter where you lose."
Sporting principles have won the day because most of the clubs have announced they will now not play in the Super League.
The reason why those principles are so important can be seen in the success stories of the Basketball Champions League.
Basketball reached new heights in Antwerp when the city hosted the 2019 Final Four
Just last season, Burgos, a team from the north of Spain, made it through the pre-qualifying stage and eventually won the BCL Final Eight.
Their title defense is still alive, too. Burgos, a team that wasn't even in the top flight of Spain a few years ago, will be at the Final Eight again when it's held in Nizhny Novgorod starting May 5. Their fans have gone from cheering on a team that played in a lower division in Spain to celebrating trophies.
Burgos also captured the FIBA Intercontinental Cup earlier this year.
It's worth repeating: the Basketball Champions League is guided by sporting principles.
There is no such thing as a team playing in the competition this season that is automatically awarded, or guaranteed, a place in the competition next year.
Spots in the following season's competition are always determined by the sporting principles. Teams must play well enough in their respective domestic leagues to clinch a place, or at least earn a spot in the pre-qualifiers.
This is a fundamental tenet of how sports competitions have historically been run in Europe.
There is no room for a sense of entitlement.
Jeff Taylor
FIBA
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