Basketball Euroleague 2009 – the Tournament Review

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Greece basketball
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Basketball Euroleague 2009 – the Tournament Review

The Euroleague 2008-2009 is the ninth international basketball club competition for elite clubs throughout Europe under the ULEB umbrella. The season features 24 teams from 13 different countries and will culminate in the 2008-2009 Euroleague Final Tour at the new 02 World Arena in Berlin Germany. The defending champions are CSKA Moscow. While the general structure of the competition is identical to that used in recent seasons, some changes have been made to the format for two phases of the game that is the regular season and quarterfinals.

List of Teams Participating in the Euroleague 2009

1.    Spain—TAU Ceramica
2.    Italy—Montepesachi Siena
3.    Greece—Panathinaikos Athens
4.    Turkey—Fenerbahce Ulker
5.    France—SLUC Nancy
6.    Lithunia—Zalgiris Kaunas
7.    Germany—ALBA Berlin
8.    Croatia—Cibona Zagreb
9.    Russia—CSKA Moscow
10.    Israel—Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv
11.    Slovenia—Union Olimpija Ljubljana
12.    Serbia—Partizan Igokea
13.    Poland—Asseco Prokam Sopot

Format of the Game

Regular Session: – The first phase shall be a regular session in which the competing teams are drawn into four groups, each consisting six teams. Each player plays against other team in its group at home and away. This shall result in ten games for each team in the first stage. The top four teams in each group advance to the next round. This is the first year for this kind of format as previously the competing teams were split into three groups of eight teams each; with top five teams in each group plus the best sixth place team advancing.

Top 16:- The surviving teams are divided into four groups of four teams each, then a round robin system is adopted that results in 6 games each. Tiebreakers are identical to those used in the regular session. Games will be held from January 28 till March 13.

Quarter Finals: – In quarter finals, the top 16 teams play second placed teams from different groups in the best-of-five playoff series. The winners are advanced to the final four.

Final four: – The culminating stage of the Euroleague in which four remaining teams play a significant semifinal match and the winners of those advance to the final stage. The losers play in a third-place playoff. The victorious team in the Final will be the Euroleague Champion. The Final four live games will be played from May 1 to May 3 2009.

Top 16:- The top 16 stage will be played from January 28 to March 12, 2009. The draw was made on January 19 at Barcelona. The group winners in the regular season were drawn from one pot and the runners up from another pot. The teams in the 3rd place from one pot and those in the 4th place were from another pot. Teams that played in the same group in the regular session can’t meet again in the Top 16.

Everyone is looking forward to the finals of Euroleague as it promises to be a breath taking display of talent by all the teams.

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Peri Witny is an author of Sports articles.
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Dimitris Diamantidis
Greece basketball
Image by Hoops Photos