French and Italian clubs to play exclusively in FIBA competitions starting next season

LONDON, Great Britain - FIBA and leading European national federations - France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Russia, Spain and Turkey - met on Thursday in London to discuss the implementation of the Basketball Champions League.

The meeting, taking place under the leadership of FIBA Vice-President/FIBA Europe President Turgay Demirel and FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann, saw the attendees agree on the following important conclusions:
- National Federations support the joint project of FIBA and Domestic Leagues for the creation of the Basketball Champions League, which promotes sporting criteria, protects the domestic championships and strengthens the development of European basketball;
- France and Italy have confirmed that their clubs will participate only in competitions organised jointly by FIBA and Domestic Leagues. Others are expected to follow suit;
- National Federations confirmed their agreement with the conclusions of the Working Groups from the meetings of 7 January 2016 in Munich and look forward to the finalisation of their work at the end of this month.

The Working Groups will now proceed with the next steps in the preparation of the Basketball Champions League, including the set-up of a new company in charge of running and commercialising the new League.

The Basketball Champions League will be officially presented in Paris on 20-21 March 2016.

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FIBA (fiba.com) - the world governing body for basketball - is an independent association formed by 215 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. It is recognised as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

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