Women’s A1 and Elite League: “The two biggest children of the federation are developing”

The countdown to what promises to be an exciting new season in A1 Women’s and Elite League began with the joint presentation of the two leagues at noon on Wednesday at the Marriott Hotel. Representatives of 27 teams from the two leading national leagues attended, expressing the common belief that the new season will be even better than last year. In fact, it was announced that from this year the challenge will be established in both categories.

Evangelos Liolios (President of EEC): “I am very glad to be among you. I see the two divisions, A1 Women and Elite League. The federation is a family with many children, we have many children. The two older children are the ones here, growing up, maturing and having a bright future. Most agents, coaches, players, you have started from the lower divisions and are now here. We see something developing and we are at the beginning. When you are trying to get better you take many actions. Everyone wants to score 10/10 shots, but it’s not possible. Some actions will be wrong, but the important thing is to continue, improve and evolve. Basketball is one, just like our children have different needs and peculiarities and we take care of that. With equal interest in both. We are all in this together and for me that is the basketball family. The federation listens, organizes and organizes with your help. Three years ago we said where we want to go. Nice steps have been taken and the feedback is given by the people, how much they follow the categories. People will tell us if we are doing something right or wrong. Both events are up to you whether we work well together or not. We sit at a table with the teams and chat. We find a common path and move forward. The success of basketball and the spread in society is your result. The unity that basketball expresses is done in action. We will move forward, with mistakes, doing self-criticism. We have also thought about the next four years. Women’s Eurobasket is a milestone for us, it will give us strength to move forward. Each league may be a separate unit, but one hand will help the other and we will move forward. There is no autonomy. 50% of our population is made up of women and when they get involved in sports they will bring the family there too.

Looking at these two championships, they are very important. They express the entire pyramid of Greek basketball from below. Our path is important, this is what we will support as a federation, supporting children from a young age, so that the base grows. Some of them will become players, others coaches, other agents… We need all of us for this, the entire Greek basketball society. All this has no meaning without fans. The sports fan judges, the one who loves basketball. He is what we are all fighting for. All of you are important. I spoke to all the unions, not just one. Each union is important, the same as the rest. If a union is missing, the edifice falls apart. All groups are important and what we want to do is collaboration. We have nothing to divide, only to join forces. Unity and cooperation, not division.”

Dinos Sverkounos (General Manager; EEC): “Today we had an interception but also a pass. The picture we saw today is the realization of the vision, to be a community, to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. We want to unify everything to create the extroversion we want, so that our sport becomes the most social in Greece. A lot of money has been invested in the young ages and already the numbers justify us, with 25% more registrations compared to last year. The last game, Herakles-Panionios, had over 300 thousand live viewers. Similarly, many people saw the Olympiacos-Panathinaikos finals. We know there are complaints from arbitration, so we’re establishing the IRS in these two categories. We will have observers from KED at all your games. We also want to listen to the groups and have continuous cooperation with KED. We will discuss the expansion of the possibilities of the challenges and we hope with the cooperation of all of you to have an even bigger footprint than the 5 million viewers we had last year”.

Lambros Takis (EEC General Secretary): “I welcome the two top EEC championships. We will try to make them even bigger this year to show the unity of basketball. In everyday life there are problems, but with honesty and a good mood we can overcome them. I wish everyone health and good intentions.”

Antonis Theodorou (Wilson Commercial Director): “I’m very excited to be here. It is a pleasure and an honor that our ball will be in these important championships and we will contribute to the development of Greek basketball. We will also aim to upgrade the leagues at the marketing level. Wilson is the official ball of the NBA, WNBA and ACB among others, stands out for its style and grip and invests in technology. I wish good success to all teams and athletes, we will be by your side”.