Basketball Champions League

The Basketball Champions League (BCL) is an annual professional basketball competition for European clubs, organised by FIBA.

This article is about the basketball competition in Europe. For basketball competition in Americas, see Basketball Champions League Americas.
Basketball Champions League
Founded21 March 2016 (2016-03-21)
First season2016–17
RegionEurope
ConfederationFIBA Europe
Number of teams32 (regular season)
56 (total)
Current champions Segafredo Virtus Bologna
(1st title)
CEOPatrick Comninos
TV partnerslivebasketball.tv (all matches)
Websitewww.championsleague.basketball
2020–21 Basketball Champions League

Clubs qualify for the competition based on their performance in their national leagues and cup competitions. Although exceptional, some teams can be wildcarded.[1][2]

Creation and adoption

In October 2015, FIBA attempted to take back control of Europe's top-tier club competition,[3][4] by proposing a new competition, featuring 16 teams playing in a round-robin format, and granting eight guaranteed spots to different clubs. When the top European clubs decided to maintain the same competition format, keeping the organization within Euroleague Basketball,[5] FIBA announced the launch of a new European basketball club competition,[6] with qualification based on sporting merit.[7]

Format

Tournament

The tournament proper begins with a regular season of 32 teams, divided into four groups. Seeding is used in the draw for this stage, and teams from the same country may not be drawn into groups together. Each team meets the others in its group in home and away games, in a round-robin format. The top four teams from each group then progress to the play-offs. The fifth and sixth-placed teams can choose to enter the FIBA Europe Cup playoffs in the same season.[8]

The regular season is played from October to January, and the playoffs start in February. In the round of 16 and quarter-finals, ties are played in a 'home and away' format, based on aggregate scores. For the round of 16, the winning team from one group plays against the fourth-placed team from another group and the runner-up from one group plays against the third-placed team from another group. For the quarter-finals, the winners of games between the group winners and fourth-placed teams play against the winners from the runners-up and third-placed teams. The Final Four is typically held in the final week of April or the first week of May.[8]

Arena rules

Currently, the minimum seating capacity for home arenas of the clubs that compete in the Basketball Champions League (BCL) is 3,000 seats. However, the Basketball Champions League organizing body has the authority to grant clubs with smaller arenas a waiver of the rule.[9]

Prizes

Trophy[10]

Each year, the winning team is presented with the Basketball Champions League Trophy. The current trophy is 65 cm (26 in) tall and made of sterling silver with 24ct gold plated highlights, weighing 8 kg (18 lb). It was designed by Radiant Studios and crafted by Thomas Lyte. A basketball net forms the focus of the trophy, and the design creates the effect of a crown.

Prize money

From 2016–17 to 2017–18, FIBA reduced the prize money from €5,200,000 to €3,500,000, but doubled the prize for the winner from €500,000 to €1,000,000.[11][8] As of 2017–18, FIBA awards a base fee of €50,000 for reaching the regular season. In addition, FIBA pays teams reaching the round of 16 €20,000, each quarter-finalist €30,000, €40,000 for the fourth-placed team, €100,000 for the third-placed team, €300,000 for the runners-up, and €900,000 for the winners.[8]

  • Base fee for the regular season: €50,000
  • Round of 16: €20,000
  • Quarter-finals: €30,000
  • 4th placed team: €40,000
  • 3rd placed team: €100,000
  • Losing finalist: €300,000
  • Winning the Final: €900,000

Results
Main article: Basketball Champions League Final Four
Year Final Third and fourth place
Winners Score Second place Third place Score Fourth place
2016–17
Details
Canarias		 63–59
Banvit
Monaco		 91–77
Reyer Venezia
2017–18
Details
AEK		 100–94
Monaco
UCAM Murcia		 85–74
Riesen Ludwigsburg
2018–19
Details
Virtus Bologna		 73–61
Details
Canarias
Antwerp Giants		 72–58
Bamberg
2019–20
Details
The finals were rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Performances by club
Map of countries, teams from which have reached the regular season of the Basketball Champions League.
  Country that has been represented in the regular season
  Country that has been represented in the qualifying rounds
  Not represented
Main article: Basketball Champions League records and statistics

A total of 63 clubs from 23 national associations have played in or qualified for the Champions League group stage.

Club Winners Runners-up Years won Years runner-up
Canarias 1 1
2017
2019
AEK 1 0
2018
–
Virtus Bologna 1 0
2019
–
Bandırma 0 1
–
2017
Monaco 0 1
–
2018

Awards
Main article: Basketball Champions League Awards

Winning rosters

Broadcasting rights
Country/Region Broadcaster Free/Pay Ref.
International YouTube (unsold markets only) Free
LiveBasketball.tv Pay
 Austria DAZN Pay [12][13]
 Germany
 Spain[lower-alpha 1]
  Switzerland
 France Canal+ Pay [14]
 Greece ERT Free [15]
 Italy Eurosport Pay [16]
 Lithuania LRT Plius Free
  1. Only matches of Spanish teams.
gollark: LyricLy will be done by 2026, since we rescheduled 2025 for 2094.
gollark: Fun idea (if it gets done in the next round it is !!NOT ME!!): implement [BEE LANGUAGE] in C, Java and Python, and make a polyglot of all those interpreters, and write the actual submission logic in [BEE LANGUAGE].
gollark: Yes, a "based" (pH > 8) implementation would implement actual forth and use that.
gollark: I definitely need you to reverse engineer #3, since I didn't write it, so do that.
gollark: Everyone knows that the best C programmers forego dynamic memory allocation.

See also

References
  1. "Champions League - Wild Card 2018-19 in arrivo per la Segafredo Bologna" (in Italian). Pianeta Basket. 6 March 2018.
  2. "Bamberg schenkt Euroleague ab" (in German). 18 June 2018.
  3. "FIBA to welcome top European clubs for talks on new competition". FIBA. 27 October 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  4. "FIBA offers innovative partnership to top European clubs". FIBA. 3 November 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  5. "Euroleague Basketball A-licence clubs and IMG agree on 10-year joint venture". Euroleague Basketball. 10 November 2015. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  6. "FIBA confirms launch of Basketball Champions League for 2016-17 season". BasketballCL.com. 26 November 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  7. "Basketball Champions League Working Groups make significant headway". BasketballCL.com. 28 January 2016. Archived from the original on 21 March 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  8. "Basketball Champions League regulations" (PDF). BasketballCL.com. 3 May 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  9. Basketball Champions League Competition Regulations Page 6 of 49.
  10. "Details for the BCL trophy".
  11. "Basketball Champions League regulations" (PDF). BasketballCL.com. 16 September 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
  12. "DAZN to remain home of Basketball Champions League in Germany | News | Sportcal". www.sportcal.com. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  13. "DAZN scores Basketball Champions League rights in Spain ahead of season tip-off". Digital TV Europe. 11 October 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  14. "Basketball Champions League and Canal+ sign a major broadcasting deal". BasketballCL.com. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  15. "ERT picks up Greek rights to basketball Champions League". SportBusiness Media. 2019-10-16. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  16. "Guida tv della settimana: tutto il basket in diretta su Eurosport 2 ed Eurosport Player". Eurosport. 2019-11-10. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
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