Euroleague Basketball

Sport Basketball
Founded 1957
Commissioner Jordi Bertomeu

No. of teams 30 (preliminary stage)
24 (group stage)
Country(ies) FIBA Europe members
Continent FIBA Europe (Europe)
Most recent champion(s) Panathinaikos (5th title)
Most championships Real Madrid (8 titles)
TV partner(s) Euroleague TV with 52 Official Broadcasters

Euroleague Basketball, commonly known simply as the Euroleague, is the highest level and most important professional basketball competition in Europe, with teams from up to 18 different European countries. The competition is operated by ULEB, a Europe-wide consortium of leading professional basketball leagues. Clubs from Israel, entirely within Asia, are also part of the system.

The league usually, but not always, includes domestic champions from the leading countries. Depending on the country, places in the Euroleague may be awarded on the basis of:

Performance in the previous season's domestic league.
Performance over the previous two or three domestic seasons.

In addition, the winner of the previous season's Eurocup receives a place.
For example, two 2007-08 domestic champions from ULEB member countries did not compete in the 2008-09 Euroleague—Zadar (Croatia) and Hapoel Holon (Israel). Zadar played in the second-level Eurocup in 2008-09. Hapoel Holon, however, did not compete in any of the three European continental club competitions—not even the third-tier EuroChallenge (which is run by FIBA Europe instead of ULEB).

Starting with the 2009–10 season, the entrance criteria have changed:

Thirteen clubs, chosen via a formula based on competitive performance, television revenues, and home attendance, receive "A Licences", giving them automatic entry into the Euroleague Regular Season phase. A Licences are awarded for three years, meaning that the next adjustment of A Licences will not take place until 2012–13.
Eight clubs receive one-year "B Licences" into the Euroleague Regular Season. Seven of them are directly based on the ranking of the domestic league in which the club competes. The eighth is a three-year "wildcard" licence based on similar factors to the A Licences; the first such licence was awarded to ASVEL Basket of France.

The winner of the previous year's Eurocup receives a one-year "C Licence" into the Euroleague Regular Season. If the club qualifies for a direct B Licence into the Regular Season via its domestic league, the C Licence will be awarded to the club not already qualified for the Regular Season that is highest on the Euroleague entry list.
Eight other clubs receive one-year "B Licences" into the Euroleague qualifying rounds, with two advancing into the Regular Season.

Euroleague format
Beginning with the 2009–10 season, the Euroleague's first phase will be the Qualifying Rounds, which involve eight clubs bracketed into a knockout tournament consisting of two-legged matches. The four survivors of the First Qualifying Round are paired against one another for the Second Qualifying Round, with the two winners continuing in the Euroleague. All losing clubs in the Qualifying Rounds parachute into ULEB's second-tier Eurocup.

The next phase is the Regular Season, in which 24 teams participate; from 2009–10, the participants will include 22 clubs automatically entered into the Regular Season plus the two Qualifying Round winners. Each team plays two games (home-and-away) against every other team in its group. At the end of the Regular Season, the field is cut from 24 to 16. Before 2008–09, the teams were divided into three groups of eight teams each, with the top five teams in each group plus the top sixth-place finisher advancing. Now, the Regular Season involves four groups with six teams each, with the first four teams in each group advancing.

The second phase, known as the Top 16, then begins, featuring the 16 survivors of the Regular Season, drawn into four-team groups. As in the Regular Season, each Top 16 group is contested in a double round-robin format.

The third phase, the Quarterfinal round, has been played since the 2004-05 season. Before, only the group winners advanced to the Final Four (see below). Now, the first- and second-place teams from each group advance. In the quarterfinal round, the first-place team from each group is matched against a second-place team from another group in a playoff series. Through the 2007-08 season, the series was best-of-three, and expanded to best-of-five for 2008-09. Home advantage in the series goes to the first-place team.

The Final Four, held at a predetermined site, features the winners of the four quarterfinal series in one-off knockout matches. The semifinal losers play for third place; the winners play for the championship.

The 2009 Final Four was held on May 1-3 at the O2 World in Berlin. The 2010 Final Four will be held at Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris.

Arena standards
Effective as of the 2011-12 season, all Euroleague clubs must host their home matches in arenas that have a seating capacity of at least 10,000 people. When the inaugural season of the Euroleague under ULEB began with the 2000-01 season, the minimum seating capacity rule for arenas was set at 5,000. In 2008, ULEB voted to increase the arena seating requirement to 10,000 within 3 years time in order to force clubs to move into and/or build bigger arenas. This was done in hopes of increasing revenues.