Jordi Bertomeu reflects on his time as EuroLeague CEO and the competition's future / News - Basketnews.com

The now-former CEO of the EuroLeague spoke to EuroDevotion and touched on many topics: his time as EuroLeague CEO, what went wrong in the final stage of his experience at the helm of the competition, and what the future looks like for EuroLeague.

Credit: Rodolfo Molina/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images Credit Rodolfo Molina/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

After 22 years, Jordi Bertomeu is no longer the head of the EuroLeague organization. The Spanish executive was replaced by the current interim CEO Marshall Glickman. Voted out by the majority of EuroLeague clubs, Bertomeu will live his first EuroLeague as a spectator and not directly involved in the organization.

In an interview with the Italian website EuroDevotion, the Spanish executive reflected on his time as EuroLeague CEO and the things he's most proud of in his experience at the organization's helm.

"For sure I'm proud of having effectively turned European basketball around", Bertomeu explained. "In 2000 there was what I would call individual discourse. One team would find an opponent one year and another the next, there was no system because it was a competition, not a league".

"Our big change is to have brought things to be everyone's interest, precisely what a league should be", Bertomeu continued. " If a team goes bad it cannot be an individual problem, it has to be collective. Gianluigi Porelli, a friend, was very helpful and supportive of the vision we had, in looking beyond the individuality of the problems".

The Spanish executive, then, tried to explain what happened in the past few years of his tenure and why the clubs decided to remove him from his position.

"What happened? I guess you could call it fear. Just the opposite of what someone like Porelli thought", Bertomeu stated. "Fear and not vision. One fact that explains the fear? Asvel and Bayern had long been accepted as new shareholders: it took a lot of time to make their presence effective".

"Some of the clubs were getting out of their 'comfort zone'", the Spanish executive added during the interview. "Maybe there was fear of the closed league with 18 or 20 teams, fear of having to play more games. The next step that I was planning was perceived as risky and out of that comfort zone that most of the teams had".

When asked about the teams and their pretty closed approach to the media, Bertomeu tried to explain which is the main difference between the NBA and EuroLeague in terms of media availability.

"Coaches have a different role here in Europe compared to the NBA, some European coaches are bigger than the rest", Bertomeu said. "It's true that here the clubs are more closed and they are because here the belief is that renouncing 10 minutes of a training session for some media availability it's impossible to accept because there's a lot of travel, lots of games, these are all things that coaches usually don't like so they transmit that feeling to their media departments that most of the times are pretty closed and don't want to deal with the media".

"10 years ago I had a meeting with all the EuroLeague coaches", Bertomeu remembered. "And in that meeting, I tried to explain to them the importance of opening the locker rooms to the media. Some of them said 'ok, but only for the winning team', but I told them 'No, the news is made both by the winning and the losing team".

One of the main issues in the EuroLeague environment is the fact that competition is not financially sustainable and most of the clubs are losing money, even the biggest ones. But Bertomeu believes that a sustainable financial model is absolutely possible for the competition.

"Let's start with two things that need to be mentioned and that are negative for me", the Spanish executive began. "Here the most important thing is to win, compared to the NBA, and also a system of control by the league is not welcome. Some clubs prepare an expense budget and then a revenue budget... Then they are at a loss and blame Euroleague, which does not guarantee them enough revenue to cover those losses".

"The commercial value of teams is determined by what they spend on players", Bertomeu told the Italian website. "The league is here to manage in a communal way but that doesn't mean it has to necessarily give you the amount you lose as a club. We need to change our mindset, understanding that winning is not the only aspect to consider. You have to believe in the system and if it presents a Financial Fair Play you should not see it as a limitation. If you do not accept rules that put competition in order, talking about "break-even" becomes impossible".

"The value of EL, now at 100million, is 70% more than in 2015/16. That of the teams has grown by 30 percent", Bertomeu specified. "We need the new markets, UK, France, and Germany, some already introduced, others in the works, such as the two Eurocup teams playing in Paris and London, two cities that must have a future in the Euroleague".

The former EuroLeague CEO also shared his thoughts about the potential new investment in the competition coming from Dubai.

"I see it as a positive thing", Bertomeu added. "The Euroleague has always been innovative, getting to so many things before others, including soccer. Having one or two teams outside the European context I think is a good opportunity. But there has to be a serious project behind it, that's the most important part to check. I started talking to them in February, we continued the talk at the Final Four. Here, the issue of Final Four in those locations should be evaluated in the case very carefully".

A regret that Jordi Bertomeu has? For sure not being able to finalize his vision of having a EuroLeague with 18-20 teams with multi-year licenses.

"One unachieved goal is to have failed to complete the work that would have led to the expansion of the number of markets, from 13 to 18 or 20 licensed teams", the Spanish executive explained.

"My future? I enjoy some rest but I am not able to do it for too long. I wish 22 years like the one I experienced at the helm of the Euroleague could be useful in helping other managers and new situations. Working for a club? I've worked for 36 years for clubs but never inside one...who knows", Bertomeu concluded.

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