Spain’s dominance in the history of the BCL Final Four
The 2025-26 Basketball Champions League Final Four will take place next week in Badalona. The arena has a 12.500 seat capacity, and it’s a legendary venue for basketball as it hosted the basketball games at the 1992 Olympic Games, where the famous Dream Team of Team USA won the gold medal.
Unfortunately for the home fans, Joventut missed the chance to play in this Final Four as the ‘’Penya’’ were eliminated by AEK Athens in the quarterfinals. Still, the Spanish ACB League will be represented by two teams at the event, defending champions Unicaja Malaga and Tenerife. This is not a surprise as the Spanish teams have dominated the BCL since the beginning of the competition 10 years ago. In these 10 seasons, Spain had a total of 16 teams in the Final Fours and won the championship 6 times. The next most prolific leagues when it comes to the number of teams in Final Fours are Greece, Germany and France with 4 teams each, and no other country gave more than 1 champion. Also, when it comes to the host cities, Spain is 1st again as this year will be the 4th time a Spanish team will organise the Final Four after Tenerife (2017), Bilbao (2022) and Malaga (2023).
Last season, the event took place in Athens in the SUNEL Arena, and Unicaja lifted the trophy after they defeated Galatasaray in the Final 83-67. The Andalusian team has high hopes of defending the trophy, and they have very good chances to do so. Malaga is considered to be the favourite in the semifinal against AEK, and it’s very probable that we will see a 100% Spanish final as Tenerife are also heavy favourites against Rytas Vilnius. Of course, many times the Final Four format allows surprises as it’s a single game, and if Rytas goes all the way and wins the trophy, it will be the first time a Lithuanian team triumphs in the BCL.
Imre Halasz
Photo: Basketball Champions League
