Besides the competition of the four amazing teams many other programs accompany the long weekend of FINAL4 in Sopron. We will provide an insight into it now.
Many prominent guests have come to our city from the basketball world for the event. This year we had the special honor to have the world federation's chief secretary Andreas Zagklis with his family pay a visit besides the leaders of the European organization of FIBA. The importance of this is underlined by the fact that he is the first ever FIBA Chief Secretary to watch the Euroleague Women FINAL4 at the venue! He noticeably cares about women's basketball, and he has spoken with great words about our city's hospitality, our club working on a high level at the reception in Nagycenk Saturday afternoon, where we have given our guests some insight into the life and work of the Greatest Hungarian, István Széchenyi.
There have been two gatherings on Friday and on Saturday. As Iván Bodrogváry FIBA Executive Committee member said,the main theme was the organization of the FINAL4. Both the representatives of the federation and the clubs have agreed that the current system is not sustainable for a long time, due to the shortage of time there is an extreme burden on all of the people who take part in the organization. They will examine the possibility of allowing to apply for hosting in October already, so it might happen that the final four will be held in a neutral location.
Before the semi-final on Friday night we had a commemorative celebration of the 2009 team that made it to the FINAL4 in the VIP section in the small gym. During the speeches of our club's honorary president Dr. István Fullér, and the current chief consul in Stuttgart, our club's all-time president, dr. János Berényi pictures of the glowing success ten years ago have appeared on the big screen. As dr. János Berényi said, he was allowed to come home for the event answering Zoltán Török's call with a ministerial permission, and he is happy to see, that the successful club in the creation of which he has actively taken part has made it to the top in the last two decades. At the end of the ceremony our team's former players who were present and the staff members were greeted with a flower, and wine, and dr. Ferenc Szalay, president of the Hungarian Basketball Federation also handed out a commemorative plaque.
Today the stakes will rise! Whether our team will be able to climb up to the pulpit, and who will be able to sit on the throne of Europe will be decided today. Seats are all sold out, but standing tickets are still available in small numbers at the venue. The gates open at 3 pm, everybody is welcome to join us!