Pinar Karsiyaka have made the cut and will join three other Turkish sides in Euroleague for the 2015-16 season. Emmet Ryan reacts to the full list of teams announced for Euroleague and Eurocup next season
The decision has been made. Pinar Karsiyaka made the cut for Euroleague following their win in the TBL Finals. The club, from the suburbs of Izmir, beat Anadolu Efes 4-1 in the finals to secure their spot in the biggest competition in European basketball. Euroleague granted Karsiyaka a provisional B licence for the 2015/16 season Turkey has four clubs in the competition, Fenerbahce and Efes already had A licences while Darussafaka Dogus were also granted a slot as a wildcard. The other three wild card recipients are FC Bayern Munich, Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar, and Strasbourg.
Like Turkey, Spain has four teams including the reigning Euroleague champions Real Madrid who will be joined by FC Barcelona, Saski Baskonia (aka Laboral Kutxa Vitoria), and Unicaja Malaga.
Here’s the full list of teams in next season’s Euroleague with licence type in brackets.
Anadolu Efes Istanbul (A)
BC Khimki Moscow Region (B)
Brose Baskets Bamberg (B)
*Cedevita Zagreb (B)
*Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade
CSKA Moscow (A)
Darussafaka Dogus Istanbul (Wildcard)
Dinamo Banco di Sardegna Sassari (B)
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan (A)
FC Barcelona (A)
FC Bayern Munich (Wildcard)
Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul (A)
Laboral Kutxa Vitoria (A)
Limoges CSP (B)
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar (Wildcard)
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv (A)
Olympiacos Piraeus (A)
Panathinaikos Athens (A)
Pinar Karsiyaka Izmir (B)
Real Madrid (A)
Stelmet Zielona Gora (B)
Strasbourg IG (Wildcard)
**Unicaja Malaga (B)
Zalgiris Kaunas (A)
* The registrations of teams from the ABA League will be considered complete only when the new ABA League including all participating teams submit the necessary documentation to ensure that it fulfills the criteria required of all domestic leagues including its relationship with ECA.
** Following the limitation of three A-Licences per country that the ECA Shareholders Meeting approved in Barcelona on July 9, 2014, Unicaja Malaga, as the lowest-ranked A-Licence team participating in the Spanish League has lost its A-Licence. Unicaja gains a spot in the 2015-16 Euroleague thorugh a B-Licence, being the best ranked team in the Spanish Domestic League without an A-Licence.
Eurocup features a few teams who will be disappointed not to have made it to Euroleague. Alba Berlin’s semi-final defeat at the hands of Bayern effectively left the hosts of this year’s Euroleague Final Four needing the Munich club to win the German title in order to free up a wild card slot. Once Bamberg took the title, Alba’s fate was all but sealed. Reggio Emilia were one win away, twice, from taking a B licence but Sassari held on both times to take the Italian title and with it the Euroleague slot. Hapoel Jerusalem did what they could in Israel, claiming a first title, but missed out on a wild card and will once again play Eurocup.
Here’s the full list of teams that will play Eurocup. Remember the 8 teams eliminated in the first phase of Euroleague will enter the second phase of Eurocup later this season. Wildcards are listed in brackets and the conditions applied to ABA League teams in Euroleague also apply here.
AEK Athens (Wildcard)
ALBA Berlin
Aris Thessaloniki (Wildcard)
Banvit Bandirma
Besiktas Integral Forex Istanbul (Wildcard)
*Buducnost VOLI Podgorica
CAI Zaragoza (Wildcard)
CEZ Basketball Nymburk
Dolomiti Energia Trento
Dominion Bilbao Basket
Enel Basket Brindisi (Wildcard)
Galatasaray Liv Hospital Istanbul (Wildcard)
Grissin Bon Reggio Emilia
Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem
Herbalife Gran Canaria Las Palmas
JSF Nanterre
Juventus Utena
Krasny Oktyabr Volgograd
Le Mans Sarthe Basket
Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius
Neptunas Klaipeda (Wildcard)
Nizhny Novgorod
PAOK Thessaloniki
PGE Turow Zgorzelec
ratiopharm Ulm
SLUC Nancy
Steaua CSM EximBank Bucharest (Wildcard)
Telekom Baskets Bonn
Telenet Ostend
Trabzonspor Medical Park
Umana Reyer Venice
Unics Kazan
*Union Olimpija Ljubljana
Valencia Basket
VEF Riga
Zenit St. Petersburg
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