Susijeng’s players are having a good time, as the club team season before next year’s EC home games has progressed to the first national team games.
Mikael Jantunen has impressed in the shirt of Paris Basketball in Europe’s first series in the Euroleague. Sasu Salin does guaranteed work in Romania’s Cluj-Napoca in the European second division Eurocup.
Olivier Nkamhoua has dazzled in the European triple competition in the Champions League and the German Bundesliga. Elias Valtonen is playing his best season in the Spanish premier league, according to statistics. Edon Maxhuni has performed well in the French league.
Finland’s regular players have been hit hardest on European fields for years, when you think about the scope and the hardness of the series. You have to rewind to at least the 2018-2019 season.
Still, there are three unpleasant features surrounding this week’s European Championship qualifying games.
1. Susijeng’s contribution is hard to follow
When Finland was chosen as one of the four hosts of next year’s European Championships, Finland secured its place in the European Championships. That’s why this week’s two Georgia matches are not seen as very important. There is still one concrete contribution, if and when the groups of the European Championships are formed in the spring in the style familiar from previous competitions.
At the moment, it’s a question of how many fundamentally better teams Finland will face in its opening group in Tampere.
In the current situation, Finland would basically have three tougher opponents in its EC starting group. Finland would therefore be placed as the fourth best team in the group, when the four best in the group qualify for the playoffs.
The rankings are based To the FIBA World Ranking of the International Basketball Federation. Finland is currently the 13th best country in Europe in the ranking.
When the 24 teams of the European Championships are determined, they will be ranked in six different baskets. There are four teams in each basket.
If Finland moves up one place in the ranking of European countries to 12th place, or if someone ahead does not make it to the Games, Finland would be third in the best basket, i.e. would be the third ranked team in its initial group.
In that case, Finland would have only two countries better in principle than Tampere.
Of course, the differences between the countries ranked third and fourth are very small. In the current situation, however, Finland would avoid the always difficult top country Italy for Susijeng by moving up one place in the ranking.
However, this is very difficult to follow, speculate and be excited about. Interpreting the world ranking is a difficult task, even for sports people.
It is based on the results of competitive national matches from the previous eight years with different weightings. You get a different number of points for a win depending on the tournament, the opponent, the point difference, the venue and how much time has passed since the match.
The Czech Republic is now ahead of Finland by only 2.2 ranking points in 12th place. Georgia is again 73.7 ranking points behind Finland in 14th place. It would be nice to tell you how the matches against Georgia affect Finland’s ranking points. However, it has been made practically impossible.
The own mess in the EC initial groups comes from who the organizing countries choose as commercial partners for their own initial groups and thus as one of their opponents.
So it is very challenging to stay on top of Susijeng’s concrete contribution in these EC qualifiers.
2. The best players are not included
Of course, you won’t see NBA players in the qualifiers played in the middle of the season, but now you won’t even see all the best players on European courts.
This is a familiar thing from years ago, when Peter In Kopos and Sasu Salini had trouble getting to the qualifiers from his club teams playing the Euroleague at the same time. However, the matter has surfaced again.
A year ago in the summer, the International Basketball Federation Fiba and the background company ECA, which manages the Euroleague fitthat the Euroleague players get to the February qualifiers.
However, in November, the Euroleague and Fiba will not avoid each other.
Many Euroleague players will miss this week’s first qualifying match.
This situation is now in Finland, for example, after a break of many years, when Mikael Jantunen, the current best Finnish player on European courts, is representing Paris Basketball in Istanbul, while Susijeng is playing at the same time in Espoo against Georgia. Jantunen will participate in Sunday’s away match based on preliminary talks.
Adding to the problem is that some of the Euroleague teams have let players into the national teams this week and some have not. Georgia has two Euroleague players against Finland.
Tornike Shengelia played a good 33 minutes in the Euroleague on Wednesday night in Bologna, scoring 23 points, and is coming right after to play in Finland on Thursday. Not very human either.
The topic is spoke this week in basketball Europe. Even the two star players of the Spanish big club Real Madrid have publicly criticized the situation.
Croatian Mario Hezonja thought it was ridiculous that an agreement has not been reached between the Euroleague and Fiba. Argentinian Facundo Campazzo hoped that Euroleague and Fiba could become friends.
3. Why is it not delivered only in the women’s qualifiers?
The situation in Finland’s qualifying group is also special. Susijeng, who are sure to qualify for the European Championships, are facing Serbia, Denmark and Georgia in the European Championship qualifiers, who at the same time are fighting for places in next year’s European Championship. One of these three countries will be out of the Games.
The other competition hosts Latvia, Poland and Cyprus have a similar situation with Finland.
On the women’s side, the qualifiers for next year’s European Championships have basically been decided on a better arrangement. All four host countries of next summer’s games have been placed in their own “EC qualifying group”, where they play competitive international matches against each other and do not mess up the qualifiers.
It is unfortunate from the point of view of the sport as a whole that at the moment it is almost impossible to monitor Finland’s contribution in national team basketball, the best players do not get to participate and competition places are decided strangely.
One can only agree with the wish of Real Madrid’s star players. Take care of the national team basketball in other than prestigious competitions!