EuroCup 2026/27 (M)

It was born in 2002 under a different name and a different idea. The ULEB Cup was the clubs' answer to a European map split in two, and Valencia Basket won its first final against Slovenia's Krka over two legs, in 2003. In 2008, after the ULEB–FIBA agreement, the competition was refounded as the EuroCup and absorbed what was left of the continent's second tier.

Valencia leads the roll of honour with four titles — 2003, 2010, 2014 and 2019 — ahead of Rytas Vilnius and Khimki Moscow on two each. Spain has eight, Russia five and France three, the last two thanks to Paris in 2024 and JL Bourg in 2026. Nobody else has won more than twice.

What changed the tournament's nature was the prize. For years only the champion received a one-year EuroLeague licence; since 2021/22 both finalists do. That turned a consolation cup into a ladder with two rungs, and explains why every tie here is played as if it were the last.

The semi-final began as a disaster: on 31 March 2026 Türk Telekom walked into the Ekinox and won 71-99. Twenty-eight points. JL Bourg answered by taking the second game in Ankara 73-76 and hammering the third at home, 94-78, settling the series in the one place it had not slipped up all year.

The final was best-of-three and never needed a third game. On 22 April, in Istanbul, Bourg beat Beşiktaş 60-72; on the 28th, with the Ekinox full, it closed out 73-71 for the first European title in its history. Adam Mokoka was named Final MVP. Regular-season MVP had gone to Jared Harper, of Hapoel Jerusalem, in a season of twenty teams from thirteen countries in two groups of ten.

And then the champion said no. After weighing the sporting, financial and structural implications, the French club turned down the EuroLeague licence and committed to staying here for three more seasons plus two. Beşiktaş, beaten in the final, is the one playing the 2026/27 EuroLeague.

The jump is the biggest in its twenty-four years: from twenty teams to thirty-two, from two groups to four, from sixteen countries. Twenty-one of those clubs come in on five-year licences and eleven on one-year deals, so the 2027/28 field is being decided on court too.

Italy has the most with six: Trento, Tortona, Venice, Napoli and both Rome clubs, Maxima and Roma, drawn into different groups — B and D — so the derby can only happen in the bracket. Germany brings four (Chemnitz, Rostock, Frankfurt and ratiopharm Ulm), and Spain three: Manresa, Burgos and La Laguna Tenerife.

The season opens on 29 September in Klaipėda, Neptūnas against Dolomiti Energia Trento, and the group stage closes on 13 January. Bourg defends the title in Group C, with Budućnost of Podgorica and Tofaş of Bursa for company. The two Turkish sides that had it on the ropes in spring are split up: Türk Telekom in B, Bahçeşehir in D, alongside AS Monaco.

Each group of eight plays home and away: fourteen rounds, 224 games in all. The top four in each group go through, so half the tournament is gone on 13 January and the other half — sixteen clubs — enters a bracket that no longer forgives.

The real change is right there. Eighthfinals and quarterfinals used to be single games and the final was settled over two legs; now every round, from the round of sixteen to the final, is best-of-three. That means one bad night no longer knocks anybody out, but also that home advantage for the better-seeded side counts double: two of the three games are played in its arena.

The eighthfinals run from 2 to 12 February. At the end of the road there are two EuroLeague places, one for the champion and one for the runner-up, though last season showed that winning them and using them are two different things. For the pool, the practical consequence is simple: your group's table decides who stays alive, and from February onwards every tie is worth a whole series.