Barcelona and Bayern will not attend NBA Europe meeting

A critical week is starting for the NBA Europe project. According to various European reports and Eurohoops sources, a meeting is expected to take place in London in the coming days. The talks, held in the city where the Ballon d'Or ceremony will also be staged on Monday, are expected to be an important step for the future of the project.

According to Sky Sports, PSG, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Barcelona and Real Madrid are planned to attend the meeting. The Catalan newspaper Sport, however, writes that Barcelona and Bayern will not take part. Sources speaking to EuroLeague also confirm that the two clubs maintain a clear position consistent with the EuroLeague owners' decision reached in Como. Real Madrid, meanwhile, is said to be more open to continuing talks with the NBA.

Financial calculations lie behind the European clubs' negative stance. Sport reports that the total offer made to EuroLeague shareholders is 520 million euros. However, each club would have to pay an additional 400 million euros to join the new project. In that case, the clubs would be obtaining only a discount on the minimum half-billion-euro entry offer set by the NBA.

Sport explains the clubs' cautious stance by comparing the NBA project to the European Super League plan, which the Spanish club strongly backed and which has since been shelved. The direction the project takes will become clearer in the coming days, depending on the outcome of the meeting.