Alba Berlin will no longer play in the Euroleague in the coming season. Instead, the capitals will take part in the Champions League.
Alba Berlin competes in the 2025/26 season in the Basketball Champions League (BCL). This announced 11 times the German champion and 11-time cup winner on Wednesday. After 24 years in the competitions of Euroleague Basketball, 12 of them in the Euroleague and 12 in the Eurocup, Alba Berlin is again active under the roof of the Fiba basketball association.
From the 1990/1991 season to the end of the 2000/2001 season, the Berlin association already took part in FIBA competitions. The greatest success in club history, winning the Korac Cup in 1995, achieved them during this time.
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Alba in tenth BCL season
“With participation in the Basketball Champions League, we will set up an exciting new time and thus take account of the changing European basketball landscape,” explains Managing Director Marco Baldi in a message from the association and states: “We are sure that the European competitions under the roof of the FIBA will develop strongly in the next few years and will therefore take part in the basketball champions League.”
For the Basketball Champions League, the admission of Alba Berlin is a milestone, emphasizes CEO Patrick Comninos: “Berlin is a key market for our long-term vision, and Alba Berlin is a club with great tradition, numerous successes on and next to the parquet, a modern arena, an impressive young program and a lively basketball community.”
This year’s winner has not yet been determined
There are two ways to take part in the Basketball Champions League: either about the sporting qualification – the four best teams in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), which do not play in the Euroleague or in the Eurocup, are justified – or via an invitation from the FIBA. This case is likely to have occurred at Alba Berlin, since the Berlin club is now the figurehead and the biggest name in the field of participants in the Champions League.
In 2024/25, 32 clubs from 16 nations took part in the competition. In the main round, four teams competed against each other in eight groups. This is followed by play-ins, eighth and quarter-finals. The Champions League winner will be held next weekend between AEK Betsson Athens, Galatasaray Istanbul, Unicaja Malaga and Laguna Tenerife. The group draw for the next season will take place on July 2.
Broadcast: RBB24 Inforadio, 07.05.25, 2:15 p.m.
