Shay Shtriks: Be prepared for an interesting and high-quality finish to the season

Dear Basketball Friends,

This week we finished the second stage of SIGAL UNIQA Balkan League and we are ready with the 6 best teams for the third stage – quarterfinals and semifinals.

It has been so far one of the most interesting seasons with a lot of good and interesting games which have provided to all basketball fans quality clashes. Some of the games gave unforgettable basketball moments and I am happy that most of them were broadcast live and even re-transmitted on delay at our SportMedia TV.

This season after each round there are highlights produced and top 5 basketball moves published. All of them are in the video section of our website and can be followed there.

Unfortunately we faced few issues that are not part of the basketball game or at least have not been part of the BIBL games until now. Some of the matches could not finish normally. Spectators did not respect the result of the game or the opponents and the referees. For the first time in the history of BIBL a game had to be stopped because of misbehavior of  local spectators. There was another game that had to be stopped as the coach and the management of the home team decided that the referees are not officiating according to their expectations.  Those things damaged the image of the league, destroyed the sportsmanship and the basketball spirit and I can guarantee to all of our supporters that we will take all necessary measurements because nothing like that happens again.

We learn from our mistakes. We check ourselves and we know what we should do to prevent similar situations in the future.  

Although season 2016-2017 is not over yet, we have started working towards preparing the next season 2017-2018 which is going to be the 10th anniversary one of BIBL.

We have the obligation to continue in the most professional way, to provide to the basketball fans, clubs, coaches, players and managements a quality, professional and clean basketball league. We have obligation to our sponsors, FIBA, federations, to provide good organization and good basketball league, where the basic, fundamental rules and regulations will be kept in the strongest possible way. Basketball is a game of the people, family, children, females and male, old and young, and we will give all of them the chance to enjoy a quality basketball league.

We are now checking for some changes to be done from the following season such as: number of clubs per country, system of competition, may be even the F4 system in the end. We will pay specific attention if we can register club/s competing also in another international competition during the week. We will re-check and confirm with the federations venues as we cannot have any more games during the winter in cold and not enough warmed halls. 

We will do our best to follow FIBA regulations regarding foreign players and local players, uniforms, etc.  We will continue insisting the clubs to respect and follow the league regulations.

We will continue with the full cooperation with FIBA and the national federation so that we have the best professional and quality competition like for the last nine seasons.

Now it is the time to enjoy the final part of the season. Be prepared for very interesting and high-quality games between the 6 best teams. 

I do believe all coaches, players and referees will give their best to finish the BIBL season 2016 -17 in the most exciting way.

  

Let’s wish them good luck!

May the best team win!