The managing director of the NBA Europe and Middle East, George Aivazoglou, talked about the recent meeting of club/shareholders of Euroleague Basketball in which Fenerbahce president Aki Koc was also present

The NBA official with the most direct connection to plans for an expansion to Europe in collaboration with FIBA, George Aivazoglou, talked about Turkish teams, including Fenerbahce Beko, in an interview with the Turkish news agency Anadolu Agency.

“Fenerbahce is a great club. I congratulate them on making it to the Final Four. Galatasaray is also a great club. There are also great clubs like Anadolu Efes and Besiktas,” said Aivazoglou, “We are very interested in Turkiye as a market for the new league project in Europe. We are very interested in Istanbul as a city.”

“Even if Galatasaray wins the Turkish championship, it cannot participate in Europe’s top-tier cup. This does not happen in football. In football, the team that wins the Turkish league gains the right to participate in the UEFA Champions League. We want to fix this,” he pointed out.

Aivazoglou was in attendance for a recent meeting of clubs/shareholders of Euroleague Basketball in Istanbul. In addition to talks about the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and European basketball, he met several officials, including Fener president Ali Koc. Discussions were part of the scheduled meeting.

“It was a great opportunity to meet with all the clubs and some of the owners. We met with Fenerbahce president Ali Koc,” he mentioned, “I would say the general feeling was very positive. I reiterated that we are very open to collaborating with anyone in the ecosystem who wants to be a partner in this project and contribute to how we bring this vision to life.”

“We believe this league can follow European standards,” added the managing director of the NBA Europe and Middle East, “It will be created to respect traditions, fan passion, and how way the game is played in Europe. We are aware that this is clearly different from the way it is played outside of Europe and in the United States.”

Furthermore, Aivazoglou confirmed intentions for teams based in Europe to be part of the league.

“I can say many cities such as Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, London and Manchester in England, Paris and Lyon in France, Milan and Rome in Italy, Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin in Germany,” he said, “We are interested in these cities.”

“There are three ways for interested cities and teams to join our league. First, clubs that want to join our league voluntarily. Second, existing football clubs that do not have a basketball team but want to establish one. Third, completely new clubs,” he set the requirements, “We will evaluate all these options. We have just started our research on this subject.”

“We are very clear on this issue. We want our league to be a European League in a geographical sense. That’s why a club from the Middle East will not be in the league,” he stressed.

Ending up with a 16-team league is the goal, as described by Aivazoglou.

“We aim to start with 16 teams and we want the vast majority of these teams to be permanent,” he stated, “We also want some of these teams to come from the ecosystem. These can be different teams every year, and they can earn the right to compete in our league. I think this offers a fundamental change to the current structure of European basketball. We can consider it as a step towards a single and clearer pyramid that is very transparent and easy to understand, but also fair, rewards success, and is based on merit.”