Euroleague And Eurobasket
Following basketball in Europe can be complicated for an outsider with so many different titles, leagues and championships such as EuroCup, EuroLeague and EuroBasket. Many people confuse Euroleague and EuroBasket, but they are two different events. While Euroleague is the top league in Europe where the top teams from national leagues participating (and EuroCup providing a second tier), EuroBasket provides the European National Team championships. Here we will look at the distinction in more detail….
EuroBasket
EuroBasket is the primary basketball competition which is held bienially between the men’s national teams governed by FIBA Europe. This also serves as a qualifying for the Olympic Games and FIBA world championship.
24 teams take part in the final EuroBasket competition (previously 16). Throughout its lifespan (starting in 1939) the EuroBasket competition has used several different formats including round robin and knockout rounds. Today the 24 teams are first put in four groups of six for a preliminary round, before
EuroLeague
EuroLeage is the highest tier and most important basketball competition in Europe with teams from 18 different countries (all members of the FIBA Europe) able to compete and seen in 191 countries by a viewership of up to 245 million households (800 million counting satellite viewers). Currently the EuroLeauge is using the name ‘Turkish Airlines EuroLeague’ following a sponsorship deal with the titular company.
The competition is run by ULEB which is a Europe wide consortium of professional basketball leagues. The teams will generally by the domestic champions from the leading countries. Placement in the competition is awarded on the basis of performance in the domestic league previously, performance over two or three of those seasons, contracts with the ULEB or winning the previous season’s EuroCup – though there is some variation. As of 2009 onwards placements have been awards as ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ licenses respectively.
The competition begins with first the qualifying rounds in which eight clubs compete in a knockout tournament of two-legged matches, and then a second qualifying round for the winners. Following this the second phase – ‘Top 16′ – commences with 16 survivors from the regular season drawn into groups of four teams. The third phase is the quarterfinal followed by the EuroLeague Final Four.
Eurobasket And Euroleague
This post was written by admin on September 4, 2011
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