CSKA participated in ECA shareholders meeting

Euroleague Commercial Assets shareholders devote to the working group meetings. Our club’s management participated in today’s session in Barcelona.

A series of four working groups scheduled to meet over 10 days will allow all Turkish Airlines Euroleague clubs to enjoy a face-to-face exchange of information and ideas with Euroleague Basketball executives and to plan for the challenges and opportunities on the horizon.

On the agenda will be updates on initiatives approved at the last, full ECA Shareholders Meeting in July, as well as debate on initiatives to lead Europe’s most elite club competition toward more success.

Andrey Vatutin, CSKA President:

First of all, the meeting’s participants expressed condolences regarding the incident in Istanbul where for the first time in the history of the competition the man died as a result of fans’ conflict. It reminded us of the big risks for our competition. The Turkish authorities are investigating the incident right now and the conclusions should be made as soon as possible. To fight against extremism and violence on the stands, inside and outside of the arenas is one of the priorities of our organization.

It should be noted that the Euroleague management again gave the highest estimates to CSKA input into reaching the TV agreement in Russia in the conditions of the market decline. It was mentioned that TV rights bring 59% of the Euroleague income, 27% are earned from the sponsorships, 14% – from other sources. Euroleague expressed its desire to double the income and explained principles of sharing the revenue.

The question of financial fair-play was raised again. It is supposed that UEFA principles will be adopted to the Euroleague situation. Minimum budget for the Euroleague club should be 4 mln euros. The share of players and coaches salaries should be 65% of the budget. The owners’ participation should be gradually decreased. It is supposed that the owners will pay no more than 75% of the budget in 2015-16 season, 70% – in 2016-17 season and 65% – in 2017-18 season. It is supposed that the limits will make the clubs earn more money by themselves and created more balanced budgets.

Also the questions of dialog with FIBA and players’ insurances were raised.