Europe’s EuroLeague Basketball organizer has announced the 2025-26 calendar for its elite EuroLeague and secondary EuroCup competitions, and confirmed the expansion of the EuroLeague to 20 teams with three new entrants.
The organizer had already planned to expand the competition to 20 teams, with the addition of two new members to the semi-closed league; however, the recent defection of Alba Berlin to the rival FIBA Basketball Champions League (BCL), a third team will also join.
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Two of these sides, Hapoel Tel Aviv (Israel) and Valencia Basket (Spain), have been promoted to the EuroLeague from the EuroCup. Hapoel won the competition in 2024-25, defeating Valencia Basket (relegated from the EuroLeague following the 2023-24 campaign) in the semi-finals.
The third team added to the EuroLeague ahead of the 2025-26 campaign is UAE side BC Dubai, which domestically competes in the ABA League, a competition for teams across the Balkans.
In a wide-ranging press conference today, EuroLeague Basketball chief executive Paulius Motiejunas told Sportcal (GlobalData Sport) that the addition of three new teams, especially one with the commercial attraction of Dubai, is not an attempt to make up for the loss of the strong Berlin sports market.
He said: “We are not paying less attention [to Germany] or trying to cover up with other markets for the loss in Germany.
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By GlobalData“We have a great club in Bayern Munich, which has been the locomotive in growing the market there, and we will continue to do it. We have three clubs in the EuroCup from Germany (NINERS Chemnitz, Ratiopharm Ulm, and Veolia Towers Hamburg), so this shows that we really believe that there's a lot of potential.
“The [German] market grew 46% in the last four years and we remain committed to strengthening our presence in Germany… We renewed our TV partnership, so we'll continue doing everything to keep the German market growing. And we have no doubts it will continue to do so.”
On the inclusion of a Dubai team, he added: “[It’s] a huge step for us as a competition because it seems not too much. But it's geographical expansion, it's more games in total, it's more games for the teams, but it was a well-thought and calculated decision, so we’re really looking forward to that.”
Motiejunas revealed that the EuroLeague, which hosted its season-ending 2025 Final Four in Dubai, has an option to return the event to that city in the 2027 season, with the 2026 Final Four likely to be held in Greece or Serbia.
Growth was a trend across the 2024-25 campaign, Motiejunas added, revealing that close to 3.3 million collective fans attended EuroLEague games, a record figure.
“The TV viewership doubled in the past five years. Digital engagement quadrupled in the last few years. And, of course, the content that we generated across different social platforms generated three times more engagement.”
With this in mind, Motiejunas also opened the door for future EuroLeague expansion beyond 20 teams, saying: “Why not?” Adding that the likelihood of new EuroLeague shareholders, in particular, is high.
“We are looking and checking the alternatives. I would say that there will be changes. We want changes to happen, but it's too early to elaborate on that. But by growing the number of participating clubs, you see that we're trying to bring stability, and we will continue working on that.
“We need to work it out with the clubs and the finance and IMG and everybody involved. So that's pending.”
Motiejunas also confirmed that Euroleague Basketball remains in talks with Turkish Airlines, which became the EuroLeague’s first title sponsor in 2010 (a deal that expired with the 2024-25 campaign), but added that the body is also engaging with other prospective partners to sell the inventory.
In terms of the NBA’s prospective incursion into Europe, Motiejunas once again railed against the idea of a new NBA-led competition, and instead proposed collaboration.
He said: “I really believe that the only chance to move forward is to focus on what the clubs have already created here because the vision that we see and what we hear is that it's more or less in line with what we are doing right now, with a clubs who are stable, with clubs who come from second competition to play and the clubs dropping out, clubs being involved in in the league management a little bit. This is something that we have done for 25 years.
“Let's sit down. Let's collaborate. Let's work on how we help open up new markets that we are focusing on already. How we make decisions together. How we do TV deals together, how we do sponsorship together, how do we fix the calendar together.
“I know, that we have the best European product created, and I don't see why somebody should try to create something new where we could go together and work on how we unlock opportunities together.”
