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EuroLeague Clubs, Arenas and EuroCup Facts

Stories of EuroLeague clubs and arenas, where the names come from, the fans, the league format and EuroCup champions.

1926 Barcelona's basketball team was founded in 1926, making it one of the oldest in Spain.

1930 Olimpia Milano started out in 1930 as Dopolavoro Borletti. The Borletti company is regarded as the first sponsor in the history of Italian sport.

1931 Real Madrid's basketball section was founded in 1931. It has won more European titles than any other club.

1955 Canned-meat maker Simmenthal sponsored Olimpia Milano from 1955 to 1973. In that time the club won ten Italian titles.

1963 Maccabi Tel Aviv's home, Yad Eliyahu, opened in 1963. Today it is called Menora Mivtachim Arena.

98:97 In September 1978 Maccabi Tel Aviv beat the reigning NBA champions, the Washington Bullets, 98-97 in Tel Aviv. It was one of the first games between an NBA team and a foreign club.

1985 The Peace and Friendship Stadium in Piraeus, Olympiacos's home, opened in 1985. It hosted the 1993 Final Four.

1966 The Final Four is older than 1988: the first one was played in Bologna in 1966, and Madrid hosted another in 1967. Then the format vanished for two decades.

1992 In 1991-92 UN sanctions kept Partizan from playing at home, so they hosted their European games in Fuenlabrada near Madrid. They still won the title that season.

3 Istanbul has hosted the Final Four in three different decades: 1992, 2012 and 2017.

2 Benetton Treviso lost both their EuroLeague finals, in 1993 and 2003, but won the Saporta Cup twice, in 1995 and 1999.

1995 Athens' OAKA indoor hall, home of Panathinaikos, opened in 1995 for EuroBasket. It hosted the Olympic basketball finals in 2004.

2000 Since 2000 the EuroLeague has been run by the clubs themselves through Euroleague Basketball, not by FIBA.

2000 In 2000 Efes Pilsen became the first Turkish club to reach a EuroLeague Final Four, finishing third in Thessaloniki.

4 Valencia won the first ULEB Cup in 2003 and by 2026 had won the EuroCup four times, more than any other club. In 2026 they reached their first EuroLeague Final Four.

4 Montepaschi Siena played in four EuroLeague Final Fours, in 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2011, but never reached the final.

83-72 Hapoel Jerusalem beat Real Madrid 83-72 in the 2004 ULEB Cup final to lift the trophy.

4 Baskonia, then called Tau Cerámica, reached four straight Final Fours from 2005 to 2008 but never won. By 2026 the club still had no EuroLeague title.

2006 Dynamo Moscow won their first European trophy in 2006, beating Aris 73-60 in the ULEB Cup final in Charleroi.

79-54 Joventut Badalona, with young Ricky Rubio and Rudy Fernández, won the 2008 ULEB Cup, crushing Girona 79-54 in the final.

3 Berlin hosted three Final Fours, in 2009, 2016 and 2024, all in the same arena under three different names: O2 World, Mercedes-Benz Arena and Uber Arena.

2 Istanbul's Sinan Erdem Dome, Turkey's largest indoor arena, hosted the 2010 World Championship final and two EuroLeague Final Fours, in 2012 and 2017.

2011 In 2011 Efes Pilsen had to change its name after Turkish regulators banned alcohol and tobacco advertising in sport. The club has been called Anadolu Efes ever since.

92:77 In 2011 UNICS Kazan won the EuroCup, beating Cajasol Sevilla 92-77 in the final.

2014 In 2014 AS Monaco were still playing in France's third division. Eleven years later, in 2025, they played in the EuroLeague final.

30 In 2016-17 the EuroLeague became a true league: 16 teams played each other twice, 30 rounds in all.

2016 In 2016 Galatasaray won the EuroCup, beating Strasbourg 140-133 on aggregate over a two-legged final.

2018 Paris Basketball was founded only in 2018, yet won the EuroCup in 2024 and made its EuroLeague debut in the 2024-25 season.

2018 In 2018 Istanbul's Darüşşafaka won the EuroCup, beating Lokomotiv-Kuban Krasnodar in the final series.

20 The EuroLeague grew from 16 to 18 teams in 2019-20, and in 2025-26 it had 20 clubs for the first time. The regular season grew to 38 rounds.

2020 In 2020 the EuroLeague season was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and for the first time since 1958 no European champion was crowned.

2021 In 2021 Olimpia Milano reached the EuroLeague Final Four for the first time since 1992.

2021 Bayern Munich reached the EuroLeague playoffs for the first time in 2021. They lost the quarter-final series 2-3 to Olimpia Milano.

2022 In 2022 Virtus Bologna beat Bursaspor 80-67 in the EuroCup final. The win brought the club back to the EuroLeague.

2022 In February 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, the EuroLeague suspended its three Russian clubs: CSKA Moscow, UNICS Kazan and Zenit St Petersburg.

22 In 2022 three-time EuroLeague champion Dejan Bodiroga became president of Euroleague Basketball, as Jordi Bertomeu left after 22 years in charge.

2023 Dubai Basketball was founded only in 2023. It joined the EuroLeague in 2025, and in June 2026 it won the ABA League, beating Partizan 3-1 in the final.

2024 The EuroLeague introduced a play-in in the 2023-24 season: the teams finishing seventh to tenth fight for the last two playoff places.

2 Monaco reached the Final Four in 2023 and 2025, playing in the final in 2025. Yet in 2026 the club dropped down to the EuroCup.

2024 In 2024 Bayern Munich's basketball team moved into the new SAP Garden in the Olympic Park.

2025 In 2025 Abu Dhabi became the first city in the Arab world to host a EuroLeague Final Four.

103-90 The first Tel Aviv derby in EuroLeague history was played in Sofia, Bulgaria, in October 2025, for security reasons. Maccabi beat Hapoel 103-90.

2025 In April 2025 Hapoel Tel Aviv won their first European title, sweeping Gran Canaria 2-0 in the EuroCup final. That put both Tel Aviv clubs in the EuroLeague together for the first time.

24 In 2025 ALBA Berlin left the EuroLeague system after 24 years in a row and moved to FIBA's Basketball Champions League.

18,762 Halfway through the 2025-26 regular season Crvena zvezda led EuroLeague attendance with 18,762 fans a game. City rivals Partizan were just 23 behind.

2025 Valencia's Roig Arena opened in 2025. It was built by club owner Juan Roig, founder of the Mercadona supermarket chain.

0 By 2026 neither Real Madrid and Barcelona nor Olympiacos and Panathinaikos had ever met in a EuroLeague final.

2026 In 2026 French club Bourg-en-Bresse won the EuroCup, beating Beşiktaş 2-0 in the final series.

2026 The first EuroLeague SuperCup was played in Abu Dhabi in September 2026. Real Madrid won it, beating Olympiacos in the final.

2027 The EuroLeague Final Four returns to Abu Dhabi in May 2027, just two years after the first one there.

4 Real Madrid are the only club to have won all four of the European Champions Cup, the Saporta Cup, the Korać Cup and the ULEB Cup.

Derby In Greece, Olympiacos against Panathinaikos is known as the 'derby of the eternal enemies'.

5,000 AS Monaco's home, the Salle Gaston Médecin, is part of the Stade Louis II stadium complex and holds just 5,000 fans.

BCN Euroleague Basketball, the company that runs the EuroLeague, has its headquarters in Barcelona.

1871 Virtus Bologna began in 1871 as a gymnastics society and is one of the oldest sports clubs in Italy.

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