The Councilor for Sports of the Barcelona City Council, David Escudé, assured that the Catalan capital has “more than reasonable possibilities” of hosting the Euroleague basketball final four in 2025.
“In this I am launched. If any other administration accompanies us, in this case the Generalitat de Catalunya hand in hand with the Catalan Federation, I have it very clear. I think we could have more than reasonable possibilities of bringing the Euroleague in 2025 (to Barcelona ),” Escudé affirmed in declarations to RAC1.
Escudé stated that Barcelona meets all the requirements to host the biggest European club basketball event: “We have a wonderful city that is ready to host major events. We have the Palau Sant Jordi, and another thing that has not been valued: almost 14,000 federative cards for boys and girls”.
“Basketball is the second great sport in the city and one of the first for women. We are also a city with a long tradition in the world of basketball. We do not close the door on Barcelona continuing to bet on basketball and some great event”, he added .
Finally, Escudé insisted that it is “a country bet”, so “the capital and the Generalitat” would have to go hand in hand to achieve “a winning bet, yes or yes”. In the coming years, Barcelona will host major sporting events such as the Copa del América de Vela in 2024 and the start of the Vuelta Ciclista a España in 2023.
If it manages to host in 2025, Barcelona would host the final four for the fourth time since this format was established. The first was in the 1997-98 season, when Virtus de Bologna won the title, then came Barça’s triumph in 2003, the first in its history, and in 2011 Panathinaikos beat Maccabi Tel Aviv.
In this year’s edition of the Euroleague basketball final four, played in Belgrade, Barça was eliminated in the semifinals against Real Madrid. The whites lost in the final against the Turkish Anadolu Efes, who had already won the edition the previous edition beating the azulgranas in the match for the title.
