All basketball eyes in Europe are on the Euroleague Final Four in London, taking place in O2 Arena this weekend. Real Madrid, FC Barcelona Regal, CSKA Moscow and Olympiacos Piraeus (last year's champions) are only two wins away from winning the most prestigious basketball title in Europe. 

RealGM sat down with Euroleague president Jordi Bertomeu to discuss the 2012-13 season, the new format of the competition, its biggest problems and the future of Euroleague.

RealGM: First of all, could you evaluate this Euroleague season from your perspective?

Bertomeu: The new format gave us very good results in terms of increasing attendance. Especially on Friday, when families got more opportunities to come to the games. Our TV ratings doubled comparing Fridays with Wednesdays. I think the second phase of the competition, Top 16, had a large success. We had many great games. Some people think it was probably a bit too long, but everyone said that it was very competitive. Also with one game left, only one team was secured its place in the playoffs, thus everyone had to compete from the beginning till the end. The traffic in the web, twitter and social media numbers comparing to last season were very good. We cannot say we're done, but it's the first year of this format.

RealGM: Could you explain why you decided to extend the Top 16 phrase instead of doing the same thing with the regular season? 

Bertomeu: Because when we decided to extend the competition, we had to be careful to not damage the product. To play more games just to play more games, it doesn't make any sense. People like to see the best teams play on the court. So we gave an opportunity for the best teams to enlarge the competition, but at the same time, we're maintaining the quality. As the compensation for the teams that cannot reach the Top 16, next year we will propose to the clubs that the teams that will not make to the next phrase can play in the Eurocup. They would have more games to play. At the same time, we have to protect the quality. With the previous format, there were groups of four teams in Top 16 and there were lot of tension. This year we had less tension and more quality. If we extend the regular season, the quality wouldn't not be the same.

RealGM: You've been talking a lot about the positive effect of playing games on Friday. At the same time, don't you think that this change creates troubles for domestic competitions?

Bertomeu: What we did is we gave an answer to the clubs who have been asking for a change. We had to leave Wednesday's for the Champions League (main soccer competition in Europe). I think there are no leagues that have trouble with this decision. In fact, there's no difference between playing games on Thursday and then Friday or Friday and then Saturday. And also most of the leagues help clubs and they play their games on Mondays. The only exception is probably the Spanish league.

RealGM: In your opinion, how important is it to maintain strong national competitions, or do you think Euroleague should be given a priority in Europe?

Bertomeu: For us it's very important, but the truth is that in last few years, with few exceptions such Germany, the overall level of main competitions in Spain, Italy or Greece decreased. That's why the international program is becoming more and more important. Clubs are asking for more games in Europe. They feel that this is what they need to give to their fans. For us, it's very important to keep European competition as strong as possible. We have the best competition than all region leagues and teams, which think domestic leagues are too small for them, want more games.

RealGM: Taking about the VTB league, at the beginning you were quite sceptical but now it seems that Euroleague 'became more friendly' with VTB. Is that correct?

Bertomeu: The only reason why we were a bit tough is that we didn't want any other competitions outside the structure. VTB was out of the structure and we had a conversation with them. I think there were good willingness from both sides and we came to an agreement. We did not want any other competition that would confuse people. I remember a couple years ago we had an opening game between Zalgiris and CSKA, and fans were confused is it VTB or Euroleague. We have to understand that fans want clear things and not to be confused. VTB could be like a Spanish competition. For example, Real Madrid and Barcelona play in Spanish competition but they also compete for the same trophy [as other European teams]. I think this is the main meaning of all of this.

RealGM: Lately there has been some tension between Euroleague and Panathinaikos. It seems that fining teams don't work, thus do you have any other ways to fight with teams that break rules?

Bertomeu: The truth is that this year, with the exception of Panathinaikos, overall the behavior of our fans was much better compared with last year. I would say that we used to have problems with Partizan and other teams in other places. But this has probably been the best year in history. Of course, we had problems with Panathinaikos, which I think is out of the normal expectations. They have to understand that they have to follow the rules. And of course, we cannot allow them to let 30,000 people in the arena if there are only 19,000 seats. Fans have to stay safe and enjoy games and this is our target. We cannot accept this behavior, having an open door to the games.

RealGM: Looking at the future, what would be the main thing you would like to improve in the near future?

Bertomeu: The best way to grow is that we focus on critical countries for us such as United Kingdom, France and Germany. We have strengthened our presence in those markets. We had a conversation with all of them and I think in a year or two that has to be our focus.