The collaboration between Mondo and the Euroleague Basketball, which began in 2009, has led to excellent results with regards to the improvement of basketball equipment and surfaces. The success of the Final Four in Istanbul was a prelude to what will happen during the London Games.
After hosting the World Championships in 2010, Istanbul is back at being the center of the universe with the Euroleague Basketball Final Four 2012, the year in which the Turkish city was voted European Capital of Sport. For Mondo, which had already provided the surface and equipment for the 2010 World Championships it was another important step for the company of Gallo d'Alba that has, in recent years, become a reference for the sport, with having been the official supplier at the last three Euroleague Final Four and the last two Olympic Games, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. The final in Istanbul is just a few weeks prior to the sporting event of the year, the London Olympics, where Mondo will be featured as the official supplier, even within the Basketball arena.
As in past editions, the 2012 Euroleague Final Four has seen an extensive use of Mondo solutions. "We are grateful for Mondo’s commitment as an official sponsor, in this season's Euroleague Final Four of Turkish Airlines.This is the fifth consecutive year that the season’s decisive games are played with Mondo baskets designed specifically for the Euroleague, and it’s the third year that the company has cooperated with the Euroleague Basketball program, Euroleague for Life, "said Jordi Bertomeu , President and CEO of Euroleague Basketball. "Mondo fits perfectly with our partnership strategy - continues Bertomeu -. It is the perfect example of the involvement that we seek between a company and the various activities that Euroleague Basketball develops. It is the best way to integrate the brand with the fan base of the highest level of European basketball. "
The relationship between Mondo and Euroleague started in 2009. The agreement covers the supply of all equipment for the semifinals and finals, hydraulic and transportable on wheels, including backboards, rings and basketball nets, all the electronic equipment necessary to carry out the games.
The teams qualifying for the 2012 edition of the Euroleague Final Four were: Olympiakos, Panathinaikos, Barcelona and CSKA Moscow. The final match for the first place, that was between the Greeks Olympiakos and the Russians CSKA, was one of the most exciting games in Euroleague history. Behind by 19 points in the third quarter, Olympiakos managed to come back and win by one point, 62-61, with a basket just 0.7 seconds before the sound of the siren that signaled the end of the game. The "red" of Greece have thus become European champions for the second time, after their success in 1997. In third place was Barcelona, that beat Panathinaikos 74-69 in the consolation final. Early in the season, the greek team was not considered among the title contenders mostly because of some owners in their early twenties and some players that had not participated at all in the Euroleague the first year. Eventually, however, the team managed to surprise everyone with the great performance of its best player, Vassilis Spanoulis, who also won the award for best player in the Final Four.
A few days prior to the Final Four, the orphanage Istanbul Bahcelievler Social Services Campus inaugurated its new basketball center, in which Mondo participated by supplying and installing at no cost, baskets suitable for outdoor playgrounds. The event was attended not only by local authorities and Euroleague executives, but also by some players of the four finalist teams (Ramunas Siskauskas and Milos Teodosicdel of CSKA, Marcelinho Huertas and Joe Ingles of FC Barcelona, Mike Batiste and Stratos Perperoglou of Panathinaikos, Kyle Hines and Georgios Printezis of Olympiacos) who spent some time playing with the boys of the orphanage. This initiative is in addition to others made in recent years with the Euroleague for Life, a social responsibility project initiated in 2006-2007, which is based on the belief that sports and health education are important and positive values to give individuals in a world where poverty, disease, wars and disasters affect millions of people.