Personally,I don't.Money has taken over every sport in the world and of course this is very bad.When the team joins most of the players will want to transfer there.We are going to see a league in which the players will not play for the badge but for the money.Also there is a reason it's called EUROleague.
Noone is stopping them from making a Dubai league.
And I'm sure everyone would be happy to see the euroleague winner play against the Dubai league winner at the end of the season
This. I don’t understand why they think competing in Europe will foster a basketball community in Dubai. If they want to host sports, create a Dubai league and over the years it will grow. This team in Euroleague is probably just a pet project of one of those rich idiots.
I agree with you but this is not the style of the people from there. You see what they did with Saudi football. They didn’t try to boost their national league by creating new talent. They chose instead to buy Christiano freaking Ronaldo. Euroleague is also the fast track for them.
No, this is Euroleague
Then it will be called ...League
What in the Washington Football Team
At this point it’ll be closer to Eurasialeague if Dubai joins
If only teams of Europe should join, then Maccabi should be banned???
Yes?
There is a team from a country in the middle east that is committing genocide right now and I've seen no objections to its inclusion in these comments
Definitely unrelated to this conversation.
What part of the world is Isra*l in lmk
One might raise the same question to Turkey. Sure you have a tiny bit of land in Europe, but do you represent any of European values? I dont think so.
european “values” don’t exist, but point aside, i don’t care about turkish teams being in the euroleague. you’re acting like i’m going to beg on my knees to be included. if they were kicked out i certainly wouldnt make a fuss
We are going to see a league in which the players will not play for the badge but for the money
...because this isn't already the case, clearly, is it? :p
It is... But you ain't seen nothing yet.
Yes and accept them to EU for good measure
Imagine the scenes if UAE got EU membership before Ukraine or Serbia 😂
As the saying goes: it's not about the money, but about the amount 😀anything is possible these days
Isra*l partakes in the Euroleague and Eurovision
Turkey is not quite Europe either, so you can go spread your hatred on hamas telegram channels
How am I hateful for saying that genocide is bad?
TR european soil has 10x more people living than your whole country population bro. Just think twice
Yes, because a lot of good jokes will come out of it, some memes and I hope Giannakopoulos will have some kind of verbal at least battle with the allmighty sheikhs.
Also it will finally bring peace in the league. Zvezda and Partizan, Oly-Panatha, El classico, Efes - Fener.. Old enemies will be forgotten and we will all unite against the face of the wealthy foreigner coming to buy us all.
It would be cool if fans boycott the matches whenever they played away.
Yes, if only for the reason that I want other teams to learn what it means to have someone with ten times your budget come in, take your players and then complain about how bad you are.
I also hope for the Euroleague to crash and burn and FIBA to come up with a format based on merit and not who bought in
Damn, I felt that ...
I think buy in is better. You want teams WITH money that can compete not just an outlier team who does really well in local league and gets crushed by teams with substantial talent
sorry to disappoint you but they play for the money now too. Give Alba lots of millions and all the elite players will go there.
I like this proposal. Can't wait for that Sloukas to Tavares connection
There is plenty of teams which deserve an Euroleague spot more than a Dubai team.
Yeah but can they buy out NBA players? That’s all the EuroLeague wants. Money.
Pros: 1. they bring in more money and potentially more attention. 2. Politically: moderate Arab countries are eager to see the benefits of their pro western stance, getting this hug from Europe and others like it will surely strengthen the pro western attitude among the general population (completely unlike Qatari or Saudi money which comes with suppresive and islamist regimes). Also a Dubai - Maccavi game made mundane will surely help make peace from some paper between governments to a reality between people.
Cons: 1. the money they bring isn't significant enough to compete with the NBA in terms of salaries so we stay with the same pool of players plus there will be one more squad to fill plus they pay a lot so all the wages in the league will gonup, practically leaving the teams poorer than they were before the move. 2. I feel devotion? Every game matters? No basketball or sports tradition in Dubai, so I guess it will be a poor man's NBA atmosphere (at best), ruining the Euroleague brand and the main advantage we have over the NBA. 3. Traveling made even longer, with so many games this is becoming harder and harder on the players. 4. There are quite a few teams waiting to get a chance in the Euroleague. They're considering throwing one of the Belgrade teams out ffs, and they're going to give a space to a 2 year old project?!
All in all I think the negative waaaay outweighs the positive
No
F##k and no
Yeah, they could think about adding middle-eastern teams, after:
- They deal with the current Euroleague format (teams with long-term contracts getting financial investments because of security, while others, especially from big markets with strong fanbases, risk getting left out).
- They figure out the fairness issue (lots of owners in different leagues being hesitant to invest in basketball because of no real incentive when a closed league is the top competition, knowing that they will probably be left out even if they overachieve in their domestic competitions).
- They give priority to European teams, if they do decide to expand.
- Fix the beef with FIBA, or even attempt a merging of competitions.
- Resolve Russian team situation before considering Middle Eastern expansion.
Fuck no. It will be a big step into beginning of the end.
Dubai isn’t Europe and they’re not even an athletic place. The ONLY thing it will ever be is a team that will exist and win titles based purely on its outrageously deep pockets and absolutely nothing else.
I really hope the Champions league grows and eventually replaces this corpo-whore of a league.
euroleague is trying nba-ify the whole thing. The nba sucks. American sport culture sucks. The whole thing is a mega circus to maximize revenue.
Here’s exactly what to expect the next 25 years from the EuroLeague.
More fake teams like The Dubai Oilers or buyouts from football clubs.
Further commercializing or nbaifying of the atmosphere ( stupid organ playing, de fense, removing fan banners, penalizing profanity etc)
Corruption to include high potential market teams in the tournament—- London, Paris, Dubai taking spots from cities like Vitoria, Kaunas, Bologna
More playoff rounds and 7 game series
More matches and restrictions to prevent players from national teams
A fucking draft
Conference groups East and West Europe
And eventually they will take nba rules and fully destroy it
Fuck no.
Dubai is an artificial paradise, the empire of the false.
Ecologically, economically, it's looks like a disaster.
No, but I doubt it matters even if every single person here was in agreement.
Nope, golf was before basket is now tennis is coming
no, EUROPA LEAGUE
That's kinda wild. As an NBA fan I even find it scary because would they be under a salary cap or spend whatever they want?
EL has no salary cap and currently they're not planning to add one. Meaning Dubai would end up with a EL All Star Team for a squad. Think Real Madrid, but add Vezenkov, James, Milutinov, Larkin and a couple no name youth players
No
isnt the team going to be from Paris?
no, I don't. It feels like a money grab over promoting an authentic fanbase who deserves it. Kinda similar to AS Monaco.
Also, is there any euroleague youtuber who has decent highlights of euroleague games. The youtube website's highlights are terrible and I don't want to watch them.
I have mixed feelings. I obviously don’t like the idea, but this is the way EL has taken since ages. I mean players are already playing only for the money and with no connection with the country of their team. So at this point is about the difference between Monaco money (and lack of taxes) and UAE money?
And about the “euro” point… we have Istanbul and Tel Aviv, so it’s a very large idea of Europe already.
No
I would like to see additional teams, but not from outside of Europe.
Hell no.
If there is a strict salary cap mechanism then I am in favour. I don’t understand ppl saying about Europe.
Is Maccabi a team from Europe? No.
But they play by the rules.
If Dubai BC play by the rules then they are more than welcome.
Also flying from a big city in Europe towards Dubai is easier than flying to some cities like Canary Islands.
If rules apply, yes from me 🫰🏻
This
Fuck no
No… What will be their yearly budget? 50-100 million euros??
I am praying this doesn’t happen…. Pls don’t ruin the Euroleague. It wouldn’t be EURO anymore then…
We already have Maccabi. Might as well expand more in the Middle East.
I agree, because I think it will bring more resources to Euroleague clubs, more good players.
But I would prefer club will play in Dubai all home games....
Why of course, I absolutely love seeing Europe's most prestigious basketball competition whore itself to oil money Sheikhs for pennies.