The FIBA Europe Cup ( FEC ) is an annual professional club basketball competition organised by FIBA for eligible European clubs . It is FIBA Europe 's second level competition. Clubs mainly qualify based on their performance in national leagues and cup competitions, although this is not the sole deciding factor. The winner is decided by a two-legged final.
21-799: The league was founded in 2015 as a replacement of the FIBA EuroChallenge . On June 30, 2015, FIBA announced it would start a new league to compete with Euroleague Basketball 's EuroCup . The new competition, which replaced FIBA EuroChallenge , was supposed to be open for up to 100 teams to enter. A former 4th-tier FIBA competition, the FIBA EuroCup Challenge , was named as FIBA Europe Cup between 2003 and 2005. The 2015–16 FIBA Europe Cup attracted 16 domestic champions and 8 runners-up including KK Cibona , Pallacanestro Cantu , ASVEL , Pallacanestro Varese , CEZ Nymburk , BK Ventspils , PBC Academic and Krka . The first FIBA Europe Cup game
42-643: A new name for their league and chose " SuproLeague ". The 2000–01 season started with two top European professional club basketball competitions: the FIBA SuproLeague (renamed from the FIBA EuroLeague) and the brand new Euroleague . Top clubs were split between the two leagues: Panathinaikos , Maccabi Tel Aviv , CSKA Moscow , and Efes Pilsen stayed with FIBA, while Olympiacos , Kinder Bologna , Real Madrid , FC Barcelona , Tau Cerámica , and Benetton Treviso joined Euroleague Basketball. The first phase
63-413: A regular season of 32 teams, divided into eight groups. Seeding is used whilst making the draw for this stage, whilst 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 winning team and runner-up from each group then progress to the second round with 16 teams divided into four groups. Each team meets
84-615: The Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and the EuroCup (both of which fall under the supervision of Euroleague Basketball ). Though, during the first two seasons of the competition's coexistence with the EuroCup , the EuroChallenge (under the name FIBA Europe League) was favored by Italian, Russian and Greek teams, making both competitions quite comparable in strength. Since the 2007-08 and following am agreement between ULEB and FIBA
105-661: The 2000–01 season. Up until that season, there was one cup, the FIBA European Champions' Cup (which is now called the EuroLeague ), though in this season of 2000–01, the leading European teams split into two competitions: the FIBA SuproLeague and Euroleague Basketball Company 's Euroleague 2000–01 . The season started on 18 October 2000, and ended on 13 May 2001. The competition's Final Four took place at Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy , in Paris, France . The 2000–01 SuproLeague
126-521: The FIBA SuproLeague and Kinder Bologna of Euroleague Basketball Company 's EuroLeague . The leaders of both organizations realized the need to come up with a new single competition. Negotiating from the position of strength, Euroleague Basketball Company dictated proceedings and FIBA essentially had no choice but to agree to their terms. As a result, the EuroLeague was fully integrated under Euroleague Basketball Company's umbrella, and teams that competed in
147-485: The FIBA SuproLeague during the 2000–01 season joined it as well. It is today officially admitted that European basketball had two champions that year, Maccabi of the FIBA SuproLeague and Kinder Bologna of the Euroleague Basketball Company's EuroLeague. A year later, Euroleague Basketball Company and FIBA decided that Euroleague Basketball's EuroLeague competition would be the main basketball tournament on
168-580: The Quarterfinals qualified to the SuproLeague Final Four , which was held in the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy , in Paris , on 10–13 May 2001. If one or more clubs were level on won-lost record, tiebreakers were applied in the following order: Teams in bold advanced to the next round. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding, the numbers to the right indicate
189-644: The authority in European professional basketball was divided over club-country lines. FIBA stayed in charge of national team competitions (like the FIBA EuroBasket , the FIBA World Cup , and the Summer Olympics ), while Euroleague Basketball took over the European professional club competitions. From that point on, FIBA Saporta Cup and FIBA Korać Cup competitions lasted only one more season before folding, which
210-582: The continent, to be played between the top-level teams of Europe. FIBA Europe from 2002 would also organize a European league for third-tier level teams, known as the FIBA Europe League competition, while Euroleague Basketball would also organize its own second-tier level league, combining FIBA's long-time FIBA Saporta Cup and FIBA Korać Cup competitions into one new competition, the EuroCup . In 2005, Euroleague Basketball and FIBA decided to cooperate with each other and did so until 2016. In essence,
231-651: The former FIBA SuproLeague , which heralded the formation of the new version of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague , under the umbrella of Euroleague Basketball . FIBA was aiming to create a competition similar to the former Suproleague to rival the Euroleague . From the 2004–05 season and after FIBA sanctioned the Euroleague and the ULEB Cup , the EuroChallenge was considered to be the 3rd strongest international professional basketball competition for men's clubs in Europe, after both
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#1732849060318252-407: The league awards a Final MVP trophy again. FIBA EuroChallenge FIBA EuroChallenge (called the FIBA Europe League in 2003–05, and FIBA EuroCup in 2005–08) was the 3rd-tier continental club basketball competition in Europe, from 2003 to 2015. It was organized and run by FIBA Europe . It is not to be confused with the FIBA EuroCup Challenge – the defunct 4th-tier competition, which
273-477: The most recent FIBA Europe Cup season. Source: FIBA Europe Cup As of 2 May 2017. After each round, the FIBA Europe Cup awards the "Top Performer" honour to the best player of the given round. In its inaugural season, in 2016, the competition had a Final Four MVP award for the best player of its final four. The final four format was later abandoned in favor of playoffs with two-legged finals. Since 2020,
294-501: The others in its group in home and away games, in a round-robin format. For the play-offs, the winning team and runner-up from each group join them and play a two-legged format. Until 2019, the fifth-placed teams and sixth-placed teams were dropped from the Basketball Champions League regular season. The regular season is usually played from October to December and the second round is played from December to January, whilst
315-541: The play-offs start in February. The Finals were played in either a Final Four tournament format or with a two-legged series. A total number of 140 clubs from 38 FIBA member countries have participated in the competition. The competition has been won by eight clubs from seven different countries. Teams from Italy have been most successful, as two teams won the title and three other teams finished as runners-up. Statistics as of 11 June 2022. Players in bold were active in
336-582: The result of games including result in bold of the team that won in that game, and the numbers furthest to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round. 11 May, Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy , Paris 13 May, Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy , Paris 13 May, Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy , Paris All official awards of the 2000–01 FIBA SuproLeague . Source: FIBA Europe Source: FIBA Europe Source: FIBA Europe Source: FIBA Europe In May 2001, Europe had two continental champions, Maccabi Tel Aviv of
357-440: The two EuroChallenge finalists were promoted to the next season's 2nd tier level , the EuroCup competition. In 2015, FIBA Europe dissolved the EuroChallenge, to start a new self-anointed second-tier competition, called the Basketball Champions League (BCL), in an attempt to compete with the EuroCup . FIBA SuproLeague The 2000–01 FIBA SuproLeague was FIBA Europe 's professional club basketball tournament for
378-471: Was a regular season, in which the twenty competing teams were drawn into two groups, each containing ten teams. Each team played every other team in its group at home and away, resulting in 18 games for each team. The top 8 teams in each group advanced to the Round of 16, and the winners of this round advanced to the Quarterfinals. Both of the rounds were played in a Best-of-three playoff system. The winning teams of
399-486: Was also organized and run by FIBA Europe, played between 2002–03 and 2006–07. In 2015, FIBA dissolved the EuroChallenge, in order to start the Basketball Champions League (BCL) and FIBA Europe Cup (FEC), in order to extend opportunities outside the competitions organized by the Euroleague Basketball . The competition was created in 2003, following the defections of most of the top European basketball teams from
420-636: Was played on October 21, 2015, when Donar Groningen beat Egis Körmend 78–71. Frankfurt Skyliners won the 1st edition in a Final Four tournament and represented Europe in the 2016 FIBA Intercontinental Cup , following the FIBA-EuroLeague dispute . In the 2016–17 season, FIBA started the Basketball Champions League and since then teams from the Champions League can be transferred to the Europe Cup through their position. The tournament proper begins with
441-430: Was the last European top tier club competition organised by FIBA. The European Champions' Cup was originally established by FIBA and it operated under its umbrella from 1958 until the summer of 2000, concluding with the 1999–2000 season . Euroleague Basketball was created on 1 July 2000. FIBA had never trademarked the "EuroLeague" name and had no legal recourse on the usage of that name. Therefore, FIBA had to find
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