Lto Turkish Airlines Euroleague announced its news for the coming season. One is not so much, as there will be 18 participating teams in the 2023-24 edition of the maximum continental competition. The same as in the last edition, because Valencia Basket will maintain its place after the resignation of Dreamland Gran Canaria and the non-admission of other projects such as Turk Telekom Ankara – runner-up in the Eurocup-. There will be, then, four Spaniards. The champion Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Baskonia and Valencia Basket. And the bomb: the Play-In is confirmed before the Playoffs, with seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth, involved.
Valencia Basket knew since the end of the last regular season, in which they finished with 15 wins and 19 losses in 13th place in the table, that his only option of not losing the Euroleague place was through the resignation of the Eurocup champion, Dreamland Gran Canaria. Those directed by Sitapha Savan from the benches came to work with the economic references of Valencia to find a solution. did not arrive “We took your reference. His travel budget went from 500,000 euros to a million and a half when he changed Eurocup for Euroleague. In our case it is higher,” explained the president. Finally, the resignation arrived.
Playing would have been irresponsible disguised as bravery
“The easy thing would have been to say that we are going and let it be what God wants, but with all the data we had and the lessons from 5 years ago this would have been irresponsible masquerading as bravery,” Savan explained.. So, Euroleague reopened its last place that from the first moment seemed to have a clear direction to the city of Turia. Especially, because from the competition itself they preferred to keep the same places as last year except for the Eurocup. And if the Eurocup had to resign, Valencia was the clear candidate.
There will be Play-In
The most important novelty of the new Euroleague will be the confirmation of the final Play-In to decide the last two qualifiers for the Playoffs. Same format as in the NBA, with seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth involved. Seventh and eighth will play a match for being ‘seventh seed’ and face second in the regular league. The loser will have one more chance and the winner of ninth against tenth will be measured. Whoever wins will face the winner of the regular league in the quarterfinals.
Change in the Eurocup
there is also new format in the Eurocup. Only six teams make it through the group stage, with the two leaders going straight to the quarterfinals and the rest fighting in the round of 16. They change semifinals and final, because they will be three games.
The key factor will be the pavilions. The best classified will have home court factor in their direct Play-In elimination. In the last course they would have played it Zalgiris, Fenerbahe, Baskonia and Red Star.
