Fiba Europe Cup

FIBA Europe Cup is a yearly professional basketball competition for clubs, organized by FIBA (The International Basketball Federation). Abbreviated officially as FEC, the competition is held for entitled European basketball clubs, and is ranked as the European-wide fourth tier level. The main criterion for qualifying in the competition is the performance of the clubs in their national leagues and cup tournaments. Other clubs are eligible, even when clubs did not win their national leagues or cup competitions.

The starting point for FIBA Europe Cup was June 30, 2015, when FIBA announced a new European basketball competition, able to compete with Euroleague Basketball’s EuroCup. The new competition replaced in fact the former EuroChallenge competition, and was thought to be open for up to 100 European clubs to enter.

The first edition of FIBA EuropeCup game was played on October 21, 2015, opposing the Dutch team Donar Groningen and the Hungarian team Egis Körmend (78 -71). Beginning with the 2016 -2017 season, FIBA started a new competition, the Basketball Champions League, and since then a new system was established, enabling teams from the Champions League to be transferred to Europe Cup, based on their results.

The tournament has a regular season, enrolling 32 teams, divided into two conferences of four groups each. The draw is using seeding at this stage, in order to do not allow teams from the same country to be drawn into groups together. The competition is held on a round-robin system, with home and away games, until the play-offs. Here, the winner and runner-up from each groups joins the fifth-place teams and sixth-place teams dropped from the Basketball Champions League regular season. The competition starts in October, and the play-offs start in February.

The latest winner of FIBA Europe Cup (2017 – 2018) is Umana Reyer Venezia, who defeated in the Final Four tournament their countrymen Sidigas Avellino. Final score: 69 – 77 / 81 – 79.

RĂZVAN TABREA

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