| Basketball Champions League |
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| Season | 2025–26 |
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| Dates | Qualifying: 23–28 September 2025 Competition proper: 7 October 2025 – 10 May 2026 |
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| Teams | Competition proper: 32 Total: 53 (from 30 countries) |
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2026–27 → |
The 2025–26 Basketball Champions League will be the 10th season of the Basketball Champions League (BCL), a European professional basketball competition for clubs launched by FIBA.
Unicaja are the defending champions.[1]
Team allocation
A total of 53 teams from 30 of the 50 FIBA Europe member associations are set to participate in the 2025–26 Basketball Champions League.[2] The country ranking based on the country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each country:[3]
- All countries, if they entered, each have at least one team qualify.[4]
- The winners of the 2024–25 Basketball Champions League are given an additional entry if they do not qualify for the 2025–26 Basketball Champions League through their domestic league.[5]
- The organiser may grant access to the League through the attribution of up to 4 invitations (wild cards) to the Regular Season or to the Qualification Rounds.[5]
- If one or more clubs do not use their right to participate in the Basketball Champions League, the organiser may decide to allocate the respective place(s) to other clubs of the same or other country.[5]
Country ranking
.It takes into account their performance from 2022–23 to 2024–25.[6]
Country ranking for 2025–26 Basketball Champions League
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Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
- TH: Title holders
- 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.: League positions of the previous season
- Notes
Referees
A total of 54 officials are set to work on the 2025–26 season in Basketball Champions League:[8] After the 2024–25 season, twelve referees were replaced by new ones. Newcomers are marked by *.
| Referees of the 2025−26 season
|
Geert Jacobs
Ademir Zurapović
Martin Horozov
Ventsislav Velikov
Josip Jurčević
Martin Vulić
Ilias Kounelles
Ivor Matějek
Mihkel Männiste
Edgard Ceccarelli *
Yann Vezo Davidson *
Valentin Oliot
Yohan Rosso
Carsten Straube
Ioannis Agrafiotis *
Georgios Poursanidis
Ioannis Tsimpouris *
Péter Praksch
|
Ofer Manheim
Lorenzo Baldini
Andrea Bongiorni *
Valerio Grigioni *
Silvia Marziali *
Andris Aunkrogers
Elvis Binders-Coders *
Ritvars Helmsteins *
Mārtiņš Kozlovskis
Gatis Saliņš
Juozas Barkauskas
Gvidas Gedvilas
Gintaras Mačiulis
Gizella Viola Györgyi
Julio Anaya
Wojciech Liszka
Michał Proc
Dariusz Zapolski
|
Paulo Marques
Marius Ciulin
Petar Pesic
Siniša Prpa
Zdenko Tomašovič
Boris Krejić
Blaž Zupančič
Fernando Calatrava
Luis Castillo
Antonio Conde
Ariadna Chueca
Alberto Sánchez
Tolga Edis *
Cisil Güngör *
Orhan Cagri Hekimoglu
Mehmet Sahin *
Yener Yılmaz
Zafer Yılmaz
|
Round and draw dates
The schedule of the competition will be as follows.[9][10]
Schedule for 2025–26 Basketball Champions League
| Phase
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Round
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Draw date
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First leg
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Second leg
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Third leg
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| Qualifying rounds
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2 July 2025
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19–25 September 2025
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| Regular season
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Round 1
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7–8 October 2025
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| Round 2
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14–15 October 2025
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| Round 3
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21–22 October 2025
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| 28–29 October 2025
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| Round 4
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4–5 November 2025
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| 11–12 November 2025
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| Round 5
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18–19 November 2025
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| 9–10 December 2025
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| Round 6
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16–17 December 2025
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| Play-ins
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6 January 2026
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8 January 2026
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13–14 January 2026
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| Round of 16
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Round 1
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20–21 January 2026
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| Round 2
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27–28 January 2026
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| Round 3
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3–4 February 2026
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| Round 4
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10–11 February 2026
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| Round 5
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10–11 March 2026
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| Round 6
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17–18 March 2026
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| Play-offs
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Quarter-finals
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20 March 2026
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31 March–1 April 2026
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7–8 April 2026
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14–15 April 2026
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| Final Four
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Semi-finals
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8 May 2026
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| Final
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10 May 2026
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Qualifying rounds
The 24 teams will face in three qualifying round tournaments, one of which belong to the Champions Path, which contains the domestic league champions, and the other two to the League Path, which contains the rest of the teams that vie for qualify to the regular season. In each path, teams will be seeded ordered by the club ranking and by the country ranking for clubs that have not yet participated in the competition. The three winners of the finals will then qualify for the regular season and will join the 29 directly qualified teams in the main draw. The rest of the teams will qualify, if they apply, to the FIBA Europe Cup.
Draw
The draw for the qualifying rounds was held on 2 July 2025 at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.[11]
Champions path
League path
Tournament 1
The tournament 1 will be played on September 21–25, 2025.
Source: FIBA
Tournament 2
The tournament 2 will be played on September 19–23, 2025.
Source: FIBA
Tournament 3
The tournament 3 will be played on September 20–24, 2025.
Source: FIBA
Regular season
The regular season will be played by 32 teams divided into eight groups of four in which 29 teams receive direct spots plus the three qualifying round tournaments winners. The regular season will begin on 7 October and will conclude on 17 December 2025. In each group, teams will play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format where the eight group winners from each regular season group will qualify directly to the round of 16. Moreover, the second-placed and third-placed will qualify to the play-ins, where the series winners will qualify for the round of 16, while the remanining last-placed teams will be eliminated after the regular season.
A minimum of 18 countries will be represented in the regular season which will involve up to nine domestic league champions. Continental powerhouses like Alba Berlin, Joventut Badalona and Dreamland Gran Canaria will join the league after their previous stage in Euroleague Basketball competitions,[12][13][14] others like Karditsa Iaponiki, Mersin and Trapani Shark will make their debut appearance in international competitions.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Play-ins
The Play-ins will take place from 6 to 14 January 2026. The teams classified in second and third place in their respective groups of Basketball Champions League, went to the Play-ins. The winners will advance to the round of 16. First legs will be played on 6 January, second legs on 8 January and if required, third legs will be played on 13–14 January.
Notes:
- ^1 According to Article 14.5.4 of the Basketball Champions League Competition Regulations, a club that loses any game by forfeit or by default in the Play-Ins and the Play-Offs shall lose the series.[15]
Round of 16
The Round of 16 will take place from January 20 until March 18, 2026. The groups will be formed by the winners of each Regular Season Group and by eight Play-Ins winners. The 16 teams will be divided in 4 groups, 4 teams each. The first two of each groups advance to the quarter-finals.
Group I
Group J
Updated to match(es) played on
February 10, 2026. Source:
Round of 16 Standings(E) Eliminated;
(Q) Qualified for the phase indicated
Group K
Group L
Individual awards
MVP of the Group Phase
Team of the Group Phase
MVP of the Play-ins
Team of the Play-ins
References
- ^ "Final Four MVP Carter leads Unicaja to back-to-back BCL titles". www.fiba.basketball. 11 May 2025. Retrieved 12 May 2025.
- ^ a b "Basketball Champions League Season 10 lineup announced". www.championsleague.basketball. 17 June 2025. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
- ^ "Basketball Champions League Presentation - Access List Principles". www.championsleague.basketball. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
- ^ "Basketball Champions League Regulations". Basketball Champions League. Retrieved 16 December 2025.
- ^ a b c Competition Regulations 2024-25 (PDF). FIBA. 31 May 2024. p. 5. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
The Organiser may grant access to the BCL through the attribution of up to four (4) invitations to the Regular Season or to the Qualification Rounds.
- ^ "Country coefficients 2024–25". bcl-access-list.fiba.webpont.com. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
- ^ "ALBA BERLIN to compete in the Basketball Champions League in 2025-26". www.fiba.basketball. 7 May 2025. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
- ^ "Referees". Basketball Champions League.
- ^ "Competition System - Basketball Champions League | FIBA Basketball". www.championsleague.basketball. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
- ^ "2025-26 Regulations" (PDF). assets.fiba.basketball. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
- ^ "All you need to know ahead of BCL Season X draw". www.championsleague.basketball. 30 June 2025. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
- ^ Sim, Josh (8 May 2025). "Alba Berlin swap EuroLeague for Fiba's BCL as NBA Europe looms". SportsPro. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
- ^ "Joventut Badalona reportedly considers joining FIBA Basketball Champions League". basketnews.com. 12 May 2025. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
- ^ "Gran Canaria officially joins BCL". basketnews.com. 13 June 2025. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
- ^ "Statement following game between Hapoel Netanel Holon and Trapani Shark". Basketball Champions League. January 6, 2026. Retrieved January 6, 2026.
- ^ "The missing ingredient: Chris Silva named MVP of the Group Phase". Basketball Champions League. December 30, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.
- ^ "Team of the Group Phase: Hill, Rubio, Cummings, White, Silva". Basketball Champions League. December 29, 2025. Retrieved January 1, 2026.
- ^ "The Barometer: Brandon Jefferson named MVP of the Play-Ins". Basketball Champions League. January 16, 2026. Retrieved January 17, 2026.
- ^ "Team of the Play-Ins: Jefferson, Darling, Thompson, Ramsey, Blazevic". Basketball Champions League. January 16, 2026. Retrieved January 17, 2026.
External links
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| Seasons | |
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| Playoffs | |
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| Final Four / Eight | |
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| Finals | |
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| Awards | |
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2025– 26 in European men's basketball |
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| Domestic leagues | |
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| Regional leagues | |
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| Domestic cups | |
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| Supercups | |
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Continental competitions | |
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International competitions | |
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