ESAKE, the organiser of the basketball league, decided on Tuesday evening to let the new championship start this weekend as a goodwill gesture, but warned that unless a television contract is secured next week the league will be suspended indefinitely.
The start of the 2011-2012 has already been delayed as most top flight clubs remain without a deal for TV coverage; Panathinaikos and Olympiakos, the two most expensive and wealthy clubs have already got a deal with state broadcaster ERT, worth 1.3 million euros and 1.25 million euros respectively.
On October 26 ESAKE's board will meet again to discuss the situation and see whether there has been a proposal from ERT, or another broadcaster, in order to decide whether the league will continue from October 29 or not.
Tuesday's decision came after pressure from the federation's strongman, Giorgos Vassilakopoulos, who said the league must start as soon as possible so as to avoid any problems for the preparation of the national team next spring ahead of the pre-Olympic tournament in July.
The money from television rights is the main source of revenues for most of the A1 clubs, along with the sponsorship deal with state gaming company OPAP.
PAOK announced that their Monday match with Olympiakos (to be played behind closed doors) will be covered live by its Internet site (paokwebtv.com).
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