Euphony Bree, Belgium’s regular-season champion, has until tonight to fulfill the conditions of the Belgian Ethias League and remain among the 10 teams at the highest Belgian basketball level.
What happened? The Belgian vice-champion received its license to play in Ethias League on April 16th, under conditions. But those conditions, which were mostly of a financial nature, have not been fulfilled in the fixed delay.
The club has now received a final extension to the deadline — until tonight, Wednesday, 8pm — to make a bank deposit of €750,000 in order to play next season in the Belgian League. A first step that the club has achieved is to have “sold” its right to play in the ULEB Cup to Ostende. The starting fee for this competition alone would have been €25,000, an additional expense that the officials of Don Beck’s team could not afford.
If Bree doesn’t meet the current deadline, the Belgian League will play the 2008-2009 season with only nine teams. Hope remains, however, as Bree has already survived a similar problem two years ago, and was solved/adjourned with the help of the other teams. On the other hand, this would probably not happen this time.
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