Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu has announced that the pre-competition qualifying rounds will cease from next season.
Bertomeu announced his recent plans at a press conference in Tel Aviv before Euroleague champions Maccabi Electra faced Red Star Belgrade on Thursday night.
“The qualification [rounds] will be eliminated from next season,” Bertomeu said. “We don’t see in the qualification round any advantage.
“From the calendar point of view, it’s something that’s not helping the clubs because we force the club to play a tournament, because of the calendars, we force them to play in a week in September when the teams are not ready, most teams have just gathered their players the week before because they came back from the international competition.
“So the clubs are forced to compete for a spot in the Euroleague with only one week of practice for the season and that’s a very inconsistent way. And we believe that it’s not good for the clubs.”
Unics Kazan qualified to the Euroleague via the QR this season, but even with a deep and experienced squad, were still eliminated in the regular season, losing out to rivals Nizhny Novgorod to a Top 16 place.
