This Wednesday the deadline to register for the FIBA Champions League ends. The competition has grown a lot in these five years, the level is higher and higher and it is a good showcase for teams and players outside of the big clubs, which dominate the Euroleague. In addition, the economic prizes distributed to the teams that finish in the first four positions are very sweet, especially the million euros that the champion takes.
Brose Bamberg, Galatasaray and Darussafaka signed private contracts with the Champions in the past, thus attracting teams that had previously been through the Euroleague and Eurocup. Now the same has been done with Unicaja. This agreement means that FIBA is seriously evaluating that there are five Spanish teams in the tournament this next season, as there were five Turks in the last edition.
There would be four that would enter according to sporting criteria, they do not explain, plus Unicaja. In a few days it will be known. The fact is that Lenovo Tenerife and San Pablo Burgos enter for being third and sixth in the ACB league. The Eurocup does not even call them, so they repeat in the Champions League. Casademont Zaragoza, due to their good participation the last two seasons, reaching the Final Eight in both, would enter as a guest given their FIBA ranking (where they are fifth), they explain from the tournament. In fact, they were told this way in Nihzny Novgorod during the last final phase, that they would have an invitation.
The other place for an ACB club would then be for Baxi Manresa, which was ahead of UCAM Murcia in the league, tenth and twelfth respectively. At least that is how FIBA has expressed it to the Manresa club.
As for the Unicaja contract, what was signed is that they charge a fixed fee this season for joining. They are 250,000 euros according to our sources. In Malaga there has been talk of receiving 300,000 or even 330,000 but this would be if the 80,000 received by those who pass the first phase are added to the fixed, something that in good logic should be achieved by Unicaja without problems.
His presence for the following season, 2022-23, is conditioned to be among the top 9 in the ACB. If they finished in the top four, they would have a fixed price of 250,000 euros. If they finish fifth or sixth, 200,000. The figure goes down if Unicaja in turn goes down in the classification and if they are tenths or end up in a lower position even, their contract would be broken, they explain.
In addition to the financial prizes and the feeling of being able to win this title, Unicaja is also leaving the Eurocup because of the conviction that it is a competition that will go short in the short term and will no longer be the gateway to the Euroleague, which It will be closed, since the eleven clubs that own the ECA and the main European competition do not want to dedicate resources or places to the Eurocup, contrary to what Jordi Bertomeu defends.
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