EuroLeague
The EuroLeague, known as the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague for sponsorship reasons, is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier men's league in Europe. The league consists of 18 teams, of which 16 are given long-term licences and wild cards, making the league a semi-closed league. The league was first organized by FIBA in 1958, subsequently by ULEB in 2000 and then solely the Euroleague Basketball.
| Organising body | Euroleague Basketball |
|---|---|
| Founded | FIBA era 14 December 1957 Euroleague Basketball era 9 June 2000 |
| First season | FIBA era 1958 Euroleague Basketball era 2000–01 |
| Region | Europe |
| Number of teams | 18 |
| Level on pyramid | Top men's league in Europe |
| Related competitions | EuroCup Basketball |
| Current champions | Real Madrid (11th title) |
| Most championships | Real Madrid (11 titles) |
| TV partners | List of broadcasters |
| Website | euroleaguebasketball.net |
| 2023–24 EuroLeague | |
The competition was introduced in 1958 as the FIBA European Champions Cup (renamed the FIBA EuroLeague in 1996), which operated under FIBA's umbrella until Euroleague Basketball was created for the 2000–01 season. The FIBA European Champions Cup and the EuroLeague are considered to be the same competition, with the change of name being simply a re-branding.
The EuroLeague is one of the most popular indoor sports leagues in the world, with an average attendance of 8,960 for league matches in the 2022–23 season. This was the fifth-highest of any professional indoor sports league in the world (the highest outside the United States), and the second-highest of any professional basketball league in the world, only behind the National Basketball Association (NBA).
The EuroLeague title has been won by 22 clubs, 14 of which have won it more than once. The most successful club in the competition is Real Madrid, with eleven titles, including the most recent one in 2023.