By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv won the EuroCup and secured their spot in the 2025-26 EuroLeague season. This means that if the EuroLeague doesn’t expand, one of the teams that competed in the 2024-25 season will not have a place in the league next season.
EuroLeague has 13 clubs-shareholders (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Baskonia, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Fenerbahce, Anadolu Efes, Olimpia Milan, Maccabi Tel Aviv, CSKA Moscow, ASVEL, Bayern Munich, Zalgiris Kaunas) with one of them, CSKA, remaining out of the competition due to the international sanctions to Russia.
The two licenses coming from Europe belong to Monaco, which qualified in the past via EuroCup and has the best position in the final standings compared to other clubs that did the same, and Hapoel Tel Aviv.
That leaves four wildcards left to be given, or six if the league expands to 20 teams.
Paris, Partizan, Crvena Zvezda, Virtus, and ALBA are candidates for those four wildcards. If they expand to six, Dubai BC and Valencia will also be in the mix. This means one or, in case of non-expansion, three of those clubs will not compete in the EuroLeague next season.
The Virtus and ALBA cases
Paris, Partizan, and Crvena Zvezda should be considered a lock to remain in the league, even if the proposed three-year license for a €5M fee, a price that Eurohoops sources also confirm, is not ideal for them.
The same proposal was made to Virtus and ALBA, with the Italians more inclined to stay in the EuroLeague. Still, no decision has been made from their side yet, plus after the sale of 50% of the Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group to Italian private equity investor firm QuattroR things in the club changed, since Massimo Zanetti is also the owner of the team. Plus, there’s no sign that the new Bologna arena, which in theory should have been already constructed, will be built anytime soon.
The ALBA case is even more complicated because the club was on the verge of becoming the next to be a shareholder and, after the change of EuroLeague management, lost this status. ALBA might be the most fiscally responsible club in the EuroLeague, seem to be walking on thin ice still last year, and if there’s no expansion, they are the most likely candidate to not be in the EuroLeague next season.
Of course, ALBA knows this, and there are even rumors of them joining the Basketball Champions League with an eye towards the future of the NBA Europe project.
Dubai and Valencia
The next two teams that will be added to the EuroLeague – if the expansion is approved – are Valencia and Dubai. Valencia is no stranger to the EuroLeague, and from next season, they will use the state-of-the-art Roig Arena, which can be considered overkill just for EuroCup or ACB games, having a construction cost of €220M and a 15.600 seat capacity for basketball games.
Dubai, on the other hand, is expected to play at least in the EuroCup next season; they were on the verge of entering the EuroLeague last season before the rest of the league suddenly got cold feet, and their ambitions are well known.
Still, if there’s no expansion, it seems unlikely that they will avoid playing in the EuroCup for the 2025-26 season.