Euroleague chief hails Eastern Europe

The president of basketball's top continental competition the Euroleague has thrown his weight behind a new Eastern European league uniting clubs in seven countries, in an interview with RIA Novosti. The restructuring of the game in Eastern Europe was announced in January. From next season the top teams of Russia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Latvia and Estonia should abandon their respective national leagues to compete solely in the VTB United League. "Euroleague has been urging these negotiations for a long time," Euroleague president Jordi Bertomeu told RIA Novosti in a recent interview. The VTB League was started in 2008 as a regional competition but has struggled to attract the best teams, in part because it does not offer qualification to the Euroleague, which is to change from next season on. "It is something had to be done because the current situation with teams playing in VTB league but not qualifying into any international competition doesn't make sense," Bertomeu said. While he backed the new format, he insisted there is no danger of the VTB league competing with the Euroleague in terms of prestige. "I have no reasons to be afraid. ... I don't see any other competition in Europe at the level of Euroleague. I can't imagine CSKA [Moscow] refusing an opportunity to compete with Real Madrid or Barcelona." The transfer of the cream of Eastern Europe's clubs to the VTB League still hinges on a pending agreement between the Russian domestic league and the VTB League. For it to go ahead, the domestic league must relinquish the rights to determine the Russian national champion, which carries qualification to the Euroleague, to the VTB League. Andrei Vatunin, the vice-president of the VTB League and the Russian domestic Professional Basketball League was quoted as saying earlier this year that it should be a formality. Other details yet to be hammered include how many teams the VTB League should supply to the Euroleague.