FIBA EuroCup Challenge

The FIBA EuroCup Challenge (called the FIBA Europe Champions Cup in its inaugural season) was the 4th-tier continental club basketball competition in Europe. It was run and organized by FIBA Europe. The league was founded in 2002, as an attempt by FIBA to revive the old FIBA European Champions Cup, following a conflict between FIBA Europe and ULEB during the 2001-02 season. The competition ultimately ceased in 2007. Each season's finalists were promoted to the next season FIBA EuroChallenge.

History

In 2002 FIBA Europe abolished its two main club tournaments, the FIBA Saporta Cup and the FIBA Korac Cup and invited European teams to join their two newly formed competitions, the FIBA Europe Champions Cup and the FIBA Europe Regional Challenge Cup, which would function as FIBA's premium and secondary-tier tournaments, respectively,  Champions Cup started as a rival competition to the newly formed EuroLeague, already run by ULEB since 2000. During its first season 15 European champions (including Lietuvos Rytas, BK Ventspils) and 5 runners-up such as UNICS, Prokom participated in the tournament. Only the champions of Russia, Belgium and Netherlands chose to compete in the 2002-03 ULEB Cup which had been snubbed by teams from Greece, Lithuania and Israel. However, the revived Champions Cup never became a true rival to the ULEB Euroleague, and FIBA launched the FIBA Europe League in 2003 as its top competition instead. FIBA renamed the Champions Cup to FIBA Europe Cup which became then the 4th tier in the European pyramid. The competition was played during the 2002–03 to 2006–07 seasons. It was variously known as the FIBA Europe Champions Cup (2002–03), the FIBA Europe Cup (2003–05), and the FIBA EuroCup Challenge (2005–07).

Overall during those five season several historic European clubs played in the competition, such as ASK Riga, Fenerbahçe, KK Split, BC Khimki, Aris B.C., PAOK, Hapoel Jerusalem, Lietuvos Rytas, BK Ventspils, Ural Great Perm, Belenenses, PBC Academic, UNICS, Prokom, Dinamo Bucharest, Benetton Fribourg  etc.

Names of the competition

 FIBA Europe Champions Cup: (2002–2003)
 FIBA Europe Cup: (2003–2005)
 FIBA EuroCup Challenge: (2005–2007)

Finals

Finals MVP

Titles by club

Winning rosters
FIBA Europe Champions Cup:
 2002–03  Aris
Willie Solomon, Ryan Stack, Ivan Grgat, Fedor Likholitov, Prodromos Nikolaidis, Ioannis Lappas, Ioannis Gagaloudis, Dimitar Angelov, Miroslav Raičević, Dimitrios Charitopoulos, Nikos Orfanos, Kostas Kakaroudis, Dimitris Merachtsakis (Head Coach: Vangelis Alexandris)

FIBA Europe Cup:
 2003–04  Mitteldeutscher
Wendell Alexis, Manuchar Markoishvili, Paul Burke, Marijonas Petravičius, Misan Nikagbatse, Sebastian Machowski, Stephen Arigbabu, Jonas Elvikis, Per Ringstrom, Chauncey Leslie, Peter Fehse, Paul Bayer, Michael Krikemans (Head Coach: Henrik Dettmann)
 2004–05  Asesoft Ploiești
Cătălin Burlacu, Ivan Krasic, Nikola Bulatović, Vladimir Kuzmanović, Paul Helcioiu, Marko Rakočević, Rares Apostol, Antonio Alexe, Levente Szijarto, Predrag Materić, Nicolae Toader, Marko Peković, Adrian Blidaru, Saša Ocokoljić (Head Coach: Mladjen Jojic)

FIBA EuroCup Challenge:
 2005–06  Ural Great Perm
Derrick Alston, Terrell Lyday, Vasily Karasev, Jurica Golemac, Jasmin Hukić, Andre Hutson, Andrei Trushkin, Egor Vyaltsev, Vadim Panin, Evgeni Kolesnikov, Aleksandr Dedushkin, Arseni Kuchinsky, Vyacheslav Shushakov, Artem Kuzyakin (Head Coach: Sharon Drucker)
 2006–07  CSK VVS Samara
Nikita Shabalkin, Omar Cook, Georgios Diamantopoulos, Kelvin Gibbs, Evgeni Voronov, Pavel Agapov, Gennadi Zelenskiy, Yaroslav Strelkin, Oleg Baranov, Pavel Ulyanko, Taras Osipov, Anton Glazunov, Alexei Kiryanov, Valeri Likhodey (Head Coach: Valeri Tikhonenko)

See also
FIBA EuroChallenge
FIBA Europe Regional Challenge Cup
FIBA Europe Conference North
FIBA Europe Conference South

References

External links
FIBA EuroCup Challenge Homepage
linguaspor
List of Champions on Fiba Europe  

 
EuroCup Challenge
Defunct basketball cup competitions in Europe
2002 establishments in Europe
2007 disestablishments in Europe
Recurring sporting events established in 2002
Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2007