By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
One day before the draw of the new FIBA Europe club competition, the list of the 56 teams which will compete is finally published. With Spanish, Greek and Serbian clubs absent, the real standouts are few, like Cibona from Croatia, Tony Parker owned ASVEL from France, Belgium’s champion Oostende, past glories from Italy Cantu and Varese and the Turkish duo of Gaziantep and Turk Telekom.
Still there are reports around Europe at least for three clubs, Helios from Slovenia and Prienai and Lietkabelis from Lithuania, which were informed just today that they will not play in the competition. It’s a bumpy start to say the least.
According to the press release: “The teams will be geographically placed in two conferences which also takes into account the number of participating teams from each nation. Each conference will consist of seven groups of four clubs each.
Each club will play the remaining three in their group in a home-and-away format with the top two teams from each group, along with the four best-placed third place teams advancing to the Round of 32.
The Round of 32 will follow the same format as the Regular Season, with the two best-placed clubs from each group advancing to the Last 16 Play-Offs.
The tournament Final Four is set to take place from 29 April to 1 May 2016.
The Draw for the competition will take place in Freising, Germany on 4 August at 1pm (CET)”
FIBA Europe Club competition
|
CONFERENCE 1 |
CONFERENCE 2 |
|||||
|
1 |
BEL | BC Telenet Oostende | 1 | BLR | Tsmoki Minsk | |
| 1 | CRO | BC Cibona | 1 | EST | Tartu Rock | |
| 1 | CZE | CEZ Basketball Nymburk | 1 | EST | BC Kalev/Cramo | |
| 1 | FRA | ASVEL Basket | 1 | POL | PGE Turow Zgorzelec | |
| 1 | FRA | Elan Chalon | 1 | ROU | Energia Targu Jiu | |
| 1 | GER | Fraport Skyliners | 1 | TUR | Türk Telekom Ankara | |
| 1 | ITA | FoxTown Cantu | 1 | TUR | Royal Hali Gaziantep | |
| 2 | BEL | Belfius Mons-Hainaut | 2 | FIN | Kataja Basket | |
| 2 | BEL | PO Antwerp Giants | 2 | FIN | KTP-Basket | |
| 2 | DEN | Bakken Bears | 2 | KAZ | BC Astana | |
| 2 | FRA | STB Le Havre | 2 | LAT | BK Ventspils | |
| 2 | NED | SPM Shoeters Den Bosch | 2 | LTU | BC Siauliai | |
| 2 | SLO | KK KRKA Novo Mesto | 2 | RUS | BC Enisey * | |
| 2 | SWE | Södertälje Kings | 2 | UKR | BC Khimik Yuzhne | |
| 3 | AUT | magnofit Güssing Knights | 3 | BUL | PBC Lukoil Academic | |
| 3 | ITA | Pallacanestro Varese Spa | 3 | BUL | BC Rilski Sportist | |
| 3 | NED | Donar Groningen | 3 | CYP | AEK Larnaca | |
| 3 | NED | ZZ Leiden | 3 | CYP | ETHA Engomi | |
| 3 | POR | Sport Lisboa e Benfica | 3 | POL | Rosa Radom | |
| 3 | SLO | Tayfun Sentjur | 3 | POL | Slask Wroclaw | |
| 3 | SWE | Boras Basket | 3 | ROU | BC Timisoara | |
| 4 | AUT | ece Bulls Kapfenberg | 4 | ISR | Maccabi Rishon Le Zion | |
| 4 | HUN | Sopron KC | 4 | KOS | BC Sigal Prishtina | |
| 4 | HUN | Falco KC Szombathely | 4 | LTU | Utenos Juventus | |
| 4 | HUN | Egis Körmend | 4 | LTU | Pieno Zvaigzdes | |
| 4 | IRL | Hibernia Basketball | 4 | MKD | KK Kumanovo 2009 | |
| 4 | POR | FC do Porto | 4 | SVK | MBK Rieker Komarno | |
| 4 | SLO | KK Zlatorog Lasko | 4 | SVK | BK Inter Bratislava | |