FIBA Europe Cup

FIBA Europe Cup
The FIBA Europe Cup (FEC) is an annual professional club basketball competition organised by FIBA for eligible European clubs. It is FIBA's second level competition. Clubs mainly qualify based on their performance in national leagues and cup competitions, although this is not the sole deciding factor. The winner is decided by a two-legged final.
The league was founded in 2015 as a replacement of the FIBA EuroChallenge.
History
On June 30, 2015, FIBA announced it would start a new league to compete with Euroleague Basketball's EuroCup. The new competition, which replaced EuroChallenge, was supposed to be open for up to 100 teams to enter. A former 4th-tier FIBA competition, the FIBA EuroCup Challenge, was named as FIBA Europe Cup between 2003 and 2005.
The 2015–16 FIBA Europe Cup attracted 16 domestic champions and 8 runners-up including KK Cibona, Pallacanestro Cantu, ASVEL, Pallacanestro Varese, CEZ Nymburk, BK Ventspils, PBC Academic and Krka. The first FIBA Europe Cup game was played on October 21, 2015, when Donar Groningen beat Egis Körmend 78–71. Frankfurt Skyliners won the 1st edition in a Final Four tournament and represented Europe in the 2016 FIBA Intercontinental Cup, following the FIBA-EuroLeague dispute. In the 2016–17 season, FIBA started the Basketball Champions League and since then teams from the Champions League can be transferred to the Europe Cup through their position.
Format
Tournament
The tournament proper begins with a regular season of 32 teams, divided into eight groups. Seeding is used whilst making the draw for this stage, whilst teams from the same country may not be drawn into groups together. Each team meets the others in its group in home and away games, in a round-robin format. The winning team and runner-up from each group then progress to the second round with 16 teams divided into four groups. Each team meets the others in its group in home and away games, in a round-robin format.
For the play-offs, the winning team and runner-up from each group join them and play a two-legged format. Until 2019, the fifth-placed teams and sixth-placed teams were dropped from the Basketball Champions League regular season. The regular season is usually played from October to December and the second round is played from December to January, whilst the play-offs start in February.
Finals
The Finals were played in either a Final Four tournament format or with a two-legged series.
Performance by club
A total number of 140 clubs from 38 FIBA member countries have participated in the competition. The competition has been won by eight clubs from seven different countries.
Teams from Italy have been most successful, as two teams won the title and three other teams finished as runners-up.
Statistics
All-time leaders
Statistics as of 11 June 2022.
Players in bold were active in the most recent FIBA Europe Cup season.
Points
Rebounds
Assists
Single game records
Source: FIBA Europe Cup As of 2 May 2017.
Awards
After each round, the FIBA Europe Cup awards the "Top Performer" honour to the best player of the given round. In its inaugural season , in 2016, the competition had a Final Four MVP award for the best player of its final four. The final four format was later abandoned in favor of playoffs with two-legged finals. Since 2020, the league awards a Final MVP trophy again.
Winning rosters
See also
Men's competitions
EuroLeague
EuroCup Basketball
Women's competitions
EuroLeague Women
EuroCup Women
SuperCup Women
References
External links
FIBA Europe Cup official website
FIBA official website
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Recurring sporting events established in 2015
2015 establishments in Europe
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