By Antigoni Zachari / info@eurohoops.net
The ECA Shareholders Executive Board held a meeting Thursday to discuss the 2022-23 EuroLeague Basketball and appointed two wildcards to Partizan NIS Belgrade and Valencia Basket, as confirmed by the competition.
Both Partizan and Valencia competed in 7DAYS EuroCup in the 2021-22 campaign and made it through the playoffs, though they didn’t reach further than the eightfinals and semifinals respectively.
The Serbian club returns to EuroLeague for the first time since the 2013-14 season, when they made the Round of 16, while Valencia is back after one season in EuroCup.
As also decided by the ECA Shareholders, Russian clubs will not return to EuroLeague Basketball competitions next season, which means that 2021-22 participants CSKA Moscow, Zenit St Petersburg, and UNICS Kazan are removed from the 18-team lineup.
Below is the list of the 2022-23 EuroLeague teams:
ALBA Berlin
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
AS Monaco
AX Armani Exchange Milan
Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz
Crvena Zvezda
FC Barcelona
FC Bayern Munich
Fenerbahce Beko
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv
Olympiacos Piraeus
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
Partizan NIS Belgrade
Real Madrid
Valencia Basket
Virtus Segafredo Bologna
Zalgiris Kaunas
Per the official announcement:
On Thursday, June 16, 2022, the Euroleague Commercial Assets Shareholders Executive Board met to review and confirm the provisional lists of teams that will participate in the 2022-23 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and the 2022-23 7DAYS EuroCup.
Decisions taken include:
1. Teams from the Russian Federation are suspended from participation in the 2022-23 competitions due to events derived from the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The decision is taken due to the increasing difficulties for teams to play games against teams from that country, which include air travel restrictions and prohibitions or other limitations to issuing visas to Russian residents. This decision also took into consideration similar ones taken by other international team sports organisations like the IOC, UEFA, FIBA, EHF (handball), EHF (hockey) and FIVB, amongst others, as well as statements made by 37 European ministers of sports who asserted that Russian Federation teams should be banned from competing in their countries. Executive Board members also considered that protecting the integrity and regularity of the competition and the safety of all stakeholders is the ultimate priority and should not be put at risk.
2. Review and approval of the list of participating teams in the 2022-23 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague:
• ALBA Berlin
• Anadolu Efes Istanbul
• AS Monaco
• AX Armani Exchange Milan
• Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz
• Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
• FC Barcelona
• FC Bayern Munich
• Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
• LDLC Asvel Villeurbanne
• Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv
• Olympiacos Piraeus
• Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
• Partizan NIS Belgrade
• Valencia Basket
• Virtus Segafredo Bologna
• Zalgiris Kaunas
3. Review and approval of the list of participating teams in the 2022-23 7DAYS EuroCup:
• Buducnost Voli Podgorica
• Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana
• Dolomiti Energia Trento
• Frutti Extra Bursaspor
• Gran Canaria
• Hamburg Towers
• Hapoel Tel Aviv
• JL Bourg en Bresse
• Joventut Badalona
• Lietkabelis Panevezys
• London Lions
• Pallacanestro Brescia
• Paris Basketball
• Prometey
• Promitheas Patras
• Ratiopharm Ulm
• Slask Wroclaw
• Turk Telekom Ankara
• U-BT Cluj-Napoca
• Umana Reyer Venice
Photo credit: EuroCup