By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
A total of 40 clubs from 13 countries were proposed by the Euroleague Commercial Assets A-Licence Shareholder Clubs on Monday to compete in the two most elite competitions in European club basketball, the Turkish Airlines Euroleague and the Eurocup, for the upcoming 2016-17 season.
The Euroleague will feature 16 teams from nine countries, including the champions of eight domestic leagues. The list is headed by current champion CSKA Moscow and includes seven more clubs that have won the title: FC Barcelona Lassa, Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv, Olympiacos Piraeus, Panathinaikos Athens, Real Madrid, EA7 Emporio Armani Milan and Zalgiris Kaunas.
The 16 Euroleague clubs will be the standard-bearers of a historic transition to a new competition format that features all teams playing each other twice in a round-robin format, a first in international club competitions in Europe. Eight survivors after 30 regular season games will advance to the best-of-five playoffs, whose four winners will qualify for the Final Four to decide the continental champion.
Here are the 2016-17 Turkish Airlines Euroleague clubs (WC denotes wild card):
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
Brose Bamberg
Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade
CSKA Moscow
Darussafaka Dogus Istanbul (WC)
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan
FC Barcelona Lassa
Fenerbahce Istanbul
Galatasaray Odeabank Istanbul *
Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv
Olympiacos Piraeus
Panathinaikos Athens
Real Madrid
Unics Kazan
Zalgiris Kaunas
*Galatasaray‘s participation is dependent upon completion of the necessary registration requirements and documentation review by the Management Control Commission.
The full 2016-17 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Regular Season calendar will be made public at the beginning of July 2016.