Basketball chief throws weight behind East Asia Super League, says no real prospect of rival competition going ahead
- Fiba executive director Hagop Khajirian reiterates governing body’s commitment to new regional tournament, highlights ‘exclusive relationship’
- Businessman Jay Li has been pushing his Project REAL idea as a legitimate alternative to super league
Basketball officials have poured water on a Chinese businessman’s attempts to launch a regional competition, and said he should focus on cooperating within the sport’s established league structure.
Jay Li Jintian has been shopping his Rising East Asia League (REAL) as a potential competitor to the Fiba-backed East Asia Super League, which includes the Hong Kong franchise Bay Area Dragons.
The EASL has an exclusive relationship with the world governing body, and partnership agreements with the main professional leagues in Japan, Korea and the Philippines.
In an exclusive interview with the Post, Hagop Khajirian, the International Basketball Federation’s (Fiba) executive director for Asia, said EASL was the “only adopted league for the region”, adding the East Asia Basketball Association (Eaba), which answers to Fiba but has been working with Li on his project, was “impeded to set up such a league”.
“It’s well-known that Fiba has granted exclusive recognition to EASL to operate an international club competition with the top clubs from national leagues and federations in Fiba’s East Asia sub-zone and the Philippines,” Khajirian said.
“It is not possible to recognise Project REAL, or any other similar project as per the current contractual framework.”
Vicky Wu, secretary general of EABA, said her organisation’s only desire was to “evaluate the status of current international club competition in the region and to come up with an improved sustainable plan”.
She also revealed that Khajirian had said his organisation would “closely monitoring developments including to reassess its position based on evolving circumstances”.
