By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The 2023 FIBA Intercontinental Cup is officially set to be played in Tenerife from the 10th to the 12th of February 2023 in a four-team format.
The participants will be the 2022 BCL winners Lenovo Tenerife as the host, the 2022 NBA G-League winners Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the 2022 BCL Americas winners São Paulo, and the 2022 BAL trophy winners U.S. Monastir.
The 2022 FIBA Intercontinental Cup was won by Flamengo after beating the back-to-back BCL champions of San Pablo Burgos.
Here’s the full FIBA statement:
“The next edition of the FIBA Intercontinental Cup is set to take place from February 10-12, 2023, and will see the champions of four regional club leagues – Lenovo Tenerife, Rio Grande Valley Vipers, São Paulo, and U.S. Monastir – vying for the coveted trophy in Tenerife, Spain.
The event will take place at Pabellon Insular Santiago Martin, the venue that hosted the 2020 edition of the FIBA Intercontinental Cup, as well as the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2018 Final and the Basketball Champions League Final Four in 2017.
The hosts of the tournament, reigning BCL champions Lenovo Tenerife, will be hoping to add a third FIBA Intercontinental Cup title to their trophy case, having stepped at the top of the podium in the 2017 and 2020 editions of the competition.
Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the 2022 NBA G League champions, are the only other contender with prior experience of the event – and the venue, for that matter – as they took part in the 2020 edition, which was also staged in Tenerife.
U.S. Monastir is set to make history as the first-ever Tunisian club and only the second club from Africa, after Egypt’s Zamalek, to compete in the FIBA Intercontinental Cup, courtesy of their amazing conquest of the BAL trophy in 2022.
Brazil’s São Paulo meanwhile will certainly land in Tenerife having proven they are fearless newcomers, as they will make their FIBA Intercontinental Cup debut on the back of conquering the BCL Americas crown in their first-ever campaign in the competition.
“The FIBA Intercontinental Cup is at the forefront of FIBA’s strategic endeavors to shape the landscape of international club competitions for the good of the game globally,” commented FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis.
“This edition will mark only the second club tournament in basketball history to feature contenders representing four different regional competitions, building on the success of last year’s milestone event in Egypt, the first ever to be held in Africa,” Mr. Zagklis added.
The draw for the 32nd edition of the FIBA Intercontinental Cup will take place in early January 2023. The tournament will tip off on Friday, February 10, 2023, when the two Semi-Finals take place and it will conclude on Sunday, February 12, 2023, with the Final and the 3rd-Place game.
In the 2022 edition, in Cairo, Brazil’s Flamengo became the first club outside of Europe and the USA to win multiple FIBA Intercontinental Cup titles after prevailing 75-62 over Spain’s San Pablo Burgos in the Final.
The most successful club in competition history is Spanish giants Real Madrid, who have conquered the trophy on five occasions”.
PHOTO CREDIT: FIBA Basketball