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BERTOMEU KEEN ON EUROLEAGUE’S LONDON TRIP
- Updated: July 5, 2012
Euroleague president Jordi Bertomeu is confident that holding a Final Four in London next year will boost the competition’s visibility in the UK.
The league’s chief, speaking in Barcelona, was unveiling a raft of changes for next season including moving the bulk of games to Thursday and Friday nights in a bid to avoid a clash with football’s Champions League.
Following a three-day summit that approved three wild card entries, an enhanced media policy and potential rule changes, Bertomeu believes the Euroleague is now a better product than ever.
And playing its annual showpiece at the 02 Arena in east London, he believes, will be a success.
“Going to London is about helping basketball grow in that market,†he said. “That’s why we are thinking of having two Final Fours in a row there, something we never did before in the same city. This speaks to our commitment to the game of basketball by trying to incorporate a huge country into the list of Euroleague countries.
“We know that in the short term, we will probably not have a team in the UK, but if we are there for two years, we expect that it will increase the knowledge of our game and increase the prospects for the future. These are all huge challenges for us and we expect that our fans will give us positive feedback about these innovations.â€
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