EuroLeague

Turkish Airlines EuroLeague
Organising bodyEuroleague Basketball
FoundedFIBA era
14 December 1957; 66 years ago (1957-12-14)[1]
Euroleague Basketball era
9 June 2000; 24 years ago (2000-06-09)[2]
First seasonFIBA European Champions Cup
1958
FIBA European League
1991–92
FIBA EuroLeague
1996–97
FIBA SuproLeague
2000–01
Euroleague
2000–01
EuroLeague
2016–17
RegionEurope
Number of teams18
Level on pyramid1
Related competitionsEuroCup
Current championsGreece Panathinaikos (7th title)
(2023–24)
Most championshipsSpain Real Madrid (11 titles)
TV partnerstv.euroleague.net
Websiteeuroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague
2024–25 EuroLeague

The EuroLeague, officially the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier men's league in Europe.[3][4] The league consists of 18 teams, of which 16 are given long-term licences and wild cards,[5] making the league a semi-closed league.[6][7] The league was first organized by FIBA in 1958, subsequently by ULEB in 2000 and then solely the Euroleague Basketball.

The competition was introduced in 1958 as the FIBA European Champions Cup (renamed the FIBA EuroLeague in 1996), which operated under FIBA's umbrella until Euroleague Basketball was created for the 2000–01 season. The FIBA European Champions Cup and the EuroLeague are considered to be the same competition, with the change of name being simply a re-branding.

The EuroLeague is one of the most popular indoor sports leagues in the world, with an average attendance of 10,383 for league matches in the 2023–24 season. This was the fifth-highest of any professional indoor sports league in the world (the highest outside the United States), and the second-highest of any professional basketball league in the world, only behind the National Basketball Association (NBA).

The EuroLeague title has been won by 22 clubs, 14 of which have won it more than once. The most successful club in the competition is Real Madrid, with eleven titles.

  1. ^ "Champions Cup 1958". linguasprt. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  2. ^ WINNER PANATHINAIKOS. "ULEB History". ULEB. Archived from the original on 8 December 2013. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  3. ^ Farrugia, Steve (14 November 2021). "The Best European Basketball Leagues: Teams And Players".
  4. ^ "Top 12 basketball leagues in the world". ESPN.com. 17 January 2017.
  5. ^ "ECA Board meets to take strategic decisions, approves postseason special regulations". Euroleague Basketball. 8 March 2021. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  6. ^ dineshkachhwaha. "Super League: Siutat provides feedback from basketball on closed leagues". The Indian Paper. Archived from the original on 25 April 2021. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  7. ^ ballineurope (7 July 2008). "Euroleague now a semi-closed league". BallinEurope. Retrieved 21 April 2021.