“It’s just embarrassing”: The Swiss basketball federation has failed the Champions League registration

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In mid-June, Friborg Olympic was crowned Swiss champion for the fifth time in a row. This also secured the right to a starting place in the qualification for the Basketball Champions League. But due to an accident of the federation you can’t participate there now.

The Swiss Basketball Federation sent the files of the Swiss champion to the wrong address at the international association Fiba. Therefore, Fribourg was not included in the qualification. An unbelievable mistake.

“It’s just embarrassing,” Friborg president Philippe De Gottrau said in an interview with Blick. There is a total lack of understanding in the club about how something like this could happen.

Is there another solution?

Still, hope has not been given up: “The Swiss federation and Fiba are currently working on a solution,” he says. However, the chance of success is not really great.

Another option, according to De Gottrau, is to participate in the Fiba Europe Cup instead of the Champions League. The European Cup is slightly below the Champions League in terms of level and is a less important tournament. Here, too, people are in direct contact with the associations.

Not the first problems

It is not the first time that Swiss Basketball has had problems registering for European affairs, the president said. “Two years ago, the application for the Champions League just stayed with them and was not sent to us. We only realized it when the international association contacted us.”

At that time it was still not too bad, you could still register for European affairs at the last minute. Not this year, the best Swiss team will probably not be able to show themselves in Europe.

Source : Blick