{"id":441039,"date":"2025-05-07T13:18:39","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T11:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=441039"},"modified":"2025-05-07T13:18:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T11:18:39","slug":"alba-berlin-breaks-with-euroleague-and-eurocup-joins-fibas-basketball-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/alba-berlin-breaks-with-euroleague-and-eurocup-joins-fibas-basketball-champions-league\/","title":{"rendered":"ALBA Berlin Breaks with EuroLeague and EuroCup, Joins FIBA\u2019s Basketball Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A seismic shift in European basketball: ALBA Berlin will not participate in the EuroLeague or the EuroCup next season. The 22-time German champion has officially announced it will compete in the 2025\/2026 Basketball Champions League (BCL), the premier continental competition organized by FIBA.<\/p>\n<p>This move marks a complete and unprecedented break with EuroLeague Basketball, ending a 24-year chapter during which ALBA competed in 12 editions of the EuroLeague and 12 in the EuroCup (formerly ULEB Cup). More than a sporting choice, this is a political statement that could reshape the landscape of European basketball.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith our participation in the Basketball Champions League, we are entering an exciting new era and adapting to the changing European basketball landscape,\u201d said Marco Baldi, ALBA Berlin\u2019s managing director. \u201cThe conditions for securing a EuroLeague spot have changed dramatically. With our values\u2014economic sustainability, collaboration, and development\u2014we want to help shape the future ecosystem of European basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>ALBA\u2019s return to a FIBA competition, having last played under the FIBA banner in 2001, lends significant credibility to the BCL. The Berlin club\u2019s greatest international success came in 1995 when it won the FIBA Kora\u0107 Cup, and now it returns to the FIBA fold amid renewed ambition and vision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a historic moment for our competition,\u201d said Patrick Comninos, CEO of the Basketball Champions League. \u201cALBA Berlin\u2019s decision to join is a major vote of confidence in our vision and in FIBA\u2019s long-term strategy for the European club competition system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The announcement follows a major joint statement by FIBA and the NBA in March, outlining intentions to explore the creation of a new professional men\u2019s league in Europe\u2014further evidence of a shifting power dynamic in European basketball governance.<\/p>\n<p>BCL games will be broadcast live in Germany on DYN. The competition&#8217;s 2025\/2026 season will officially tip off on October 7, with the group draw scheduled for July 2 in Lausanne. The current season is concluding with a Final Four in Athens, featuring AEK Athens, Galatasaray, Unicaja Malaga, and Tenerife.<\/p>\n<p>ALBA\u2019s exit from the EuroLeague structure is not just a bold move\u2014it may be a sign of things to come in the ever-evolving battle over the future of European basketball.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"de\">ALBA BERLIN spielt 2025\/2026 in der <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BasketballCL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@BasketballCL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Der 22-fache Deutsche Meister und Pokalsieger ALBA BERLIN tritt in der kommenden Spielzeit 2025\/2026 in der Basketball Champions League (BCL) an.<\/p>\n<p>Zur News: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oebSqHSDWY\">https:\/\/t.co\/oebSqHSDWY<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wzppVOy3sb\">pic.twitter.com\/wzppVOy3sb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 ALBA BERLIN (@albaberlin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/albaberlin\/status\/1920071303945433244?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 7, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A seismic shift in European basketball: ALBA Berlin will not participate in the EuroLeague or the EuroCup next season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":441038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[245,195,197,199],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-441039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bbl","category-basketball-champions-league","category-eurocup","category-euroleague"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/05\/GqVnee4XoAAQbrR.jpg","digistream_id":0,"digistream":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441039"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=441039"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=441039"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=441039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}