[url="http://www.talkbasket.net/news/greek-leagues-4th-gameday-to-be-postponed-2381.html"]Greek A1 Gameday 4 to be postponed[/url]
[url="http://www.talkbasket.net/news/greek-league-wants-dialogue-with-players-2421.html"]Greek League wants dialogue with players[/url]
[url="http://www.talkbasket.net/news/greek-league-gameday-4-postponed-2422.html"]Greek League gameday 4 postponed[/url]
With the exception of the richest teams in Greece (and those of Europe too), A1 basketball teams have a horrible record of now paying their players on time... This is disgusting for one of the leagues supposed to be one the best in Europe :\
[quote name='ZEUS' date='26 May 2010 - 05:55 PM' timestamp='1274889320' post='21346']
With the exception of the richest teams in Greece (and those of Europe too), A1 basketball teams have a horrible record of now paying their players on time... This is disgusting for one of the leagues supposed to be one the best in Europe :\
[/quote]
I don't think it's that bad of a problem right now. Other than Maroussi who had delays because the owner's building projects got postponed, and AEK and PAOK who has had awful ownership recently. Maroussi already took care of that and normally that would not happen there. They usually don't have problems. But construction projects being postponed was not expected.
AEK has been bad, but they are for sale again so maybe a good owner will finally buy them. After all it is the 3rd biggest club in Greece and one of the biggest in Europe. Besides that, it seems this year they didn't seem to have delays.
The other team was Olympia, which had payment delays this year, but they are relegated anyway, and I am sure that Iraklis has a lot more money than they do and they are replacing them.
But most of the teams were pretty good with paying players like Peristeri, Panionios, Kolossos, Panellinios, Ilysiakos, Aris, Trikala, Kavala, etc. They have not had problems paying their players.
PAOK is another one that has been not paying players on time in recent years, but I have not heard anything about that being the case this year. It really does not seem to be nearly as big of a problem as it used to be.
Just Olympia, which has been relegated out of the league and Maroussi, which was because of the owner's building projects being postponed. Maroussi's players have all been paid up for the year eventually anyway. Normally Maroussi has the 3rd biggest budget in Greece and always pays their players, usually on time too.
So really, the only real problem team this year has been relegated out of the league. And like I said, I think Iraklis, which is coming into the league has a lot more money than they do.
I'm not sure about Esperos. In the past they spent a lot of money and had even given out some really big contracts. But I'm not sure about their situation now. They are coming in and Trikala is going out. Trikala had good finances and a fairly decent budget, so I'm not sure if Esperos has as much money as Trikala.
But Esperos is talking about using Helliniko as their arena, so that's a good sign. If AEK and PAOK could just get better ownership, really I don't think this is much of an issue.
Most of the other key teams like Panellinios, Panionios, Aris, Maroussi have pretty good owners.