Euroleague Regulations

EUROLEAGUE COMPETITION AND REGULATIONS

(Adapted from FIBA. Includes up to 2002-03 season)

BERTH ASSIGNMENT

· Up to 1999, any national federation which is a member of the Standing Conference of Europe is entitled to enter a certain number of clubs in the FIBA Euroleague (with a maximum of 3). The number of berths for each national federation depends on a combination of several criteria: the results of the FIBA Euroleague, the Saporta Cup, and the ranking of the national federations during the last three European club competition seasons. After the creation of SuproLeague in the year 2000, as a result of the massive migration of the best clubs to ULEB Euroleague, this system is not fully applied. Instead, FIBA decides to invite the following 20 clubs to SuproLeague 2000-01:

ITALY: Scavolini Basket (Pesaro), Monte di Paschi (Siena)

GREECE: Panathinaikos BSA (Athens), Iraklis BC (Thessaloníki)

LITHUANIA: BC Lietuvos Rytas (Vilnius)

FRANCE: ASVEL (Lyon-Villeurbanne), Elan Béarnais Pau-Orthez (Pau)

TURKEY: Efes Pilsen (Istanbul), Ülker SC (Istanbul)

YUGOSLAVIA: KK Partizan (Belgrade)

ISRAEL: Maccabi Elite (Tel-Aviv), Maccabi Ness Ra'anana

RUSSIA: CSKA (Moscow)

CROATIA: Croatia Osiguranje (Split)

GERMANY: ALBA (Berlin), TSV Bayer 04 (Leverkusen)

POLAND: Zepter Śląsk (Wrocław)

SLOVENIA: KK Krka Telecom (Novo Mesto)

BELGIUM: Telindus Oostende (Ostend)

SWEDEN: Plannja Basket (Luleå)

· For the next two seasons (if the merge FIBA-ULEB finally takes place) the following system would apply:

EUROLEAGUE 2001-02 (32 teams)

21 berths for teams receiving a "wild card"

ITALY: Virtus Pallacanestro (Bologna), Pallacanestro Fortitudo (Bologna), Benetton Treviso

GREECE: Panathinaikos BSA (Athens), Olympiakos BC (Piraeus)

TURKEY: Efes Pilsen (Istanbul), Ülker SC (Istanbul)

SPAIN: FC Barcelona, Real Madrid CF

FRANCE: ASVEL (Lyon-Villeurbanne), Elan Béarnais Pau-Orthez (Pau)

CROATIA: KK Cibona VIP (Zagreb), KK Zadar

GERMANY: ALBA (Berlin), Opel Skyliners (Frankfurt)

ISRAEL: Maccabi Elite (Tel-Aviv)

LITHUANIA: BC Žalgiris (Kaunas)

RUSSIA: CSKA (Moscow)

SLOVENIA: Union Olimpija (Ljubljana)

YUGOSLAVIA: KK Budućnost (Podgorica)

ENGLAND: London Towers

8 berths for teams qualified through their domestic competitions

GREECE: 2 berths

SPAIN: 2 berths

ITALY: 1 berth

YUGOSLAVIA: 1 berth

BELGIUM: 1 berth

POLAND: 1 berth

3 berths for teams qualified through a pre-season tournament, with a representative club from each of the following federations: TURKEY, FRANCE, CROATIA, GERMANY, ISRAEL, LITHUANIA, RUSSIA, SLOVENIA, BELGIUM, PORTUGAL, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND. A Qualifying Round will be played with home and away games in order to reduce the number of clubs from 12 to 6. The remaining 6 clubs will play another round to yield the 3 teams that will qualify for Euroleague 2001-02.

EUROLEAGUE 2002-03 (32 teams)

19 berths for teams receiving a "wild card"

ITALY: Virtus Pallacanestro (Bologna), Pallacanestro Fortitudo (Bologna), Benetton Treviso

GREECE: Panathinaikos BSA (Athens), Olympiakos BC (Piraeus)

TURKEY: Efes Pilsen (Istanbul), Ülker SC (Istanbul)

SPAIN: FC Barcelona, Real Madrid CF

FRANCE: ASVEL (Lyon-Villeurbanne), Elan Béarnais Pau-Orthez (Pau)

CROATIA: KK Cibona VIP (Zagreb)

GERMANY: ALBA (Berlin)

ISRAEL: Maccabi Elite (Tel-Aviv)

LITHUANIA: BC Žalgiris (Kaunas)

RUSSIA: CSKA (Moscow)

SLOVENIA: Union Olimpija (Ljubljana)

YUGOSLAVIA: KK Budućnost (Podgorica)

ENGLAND: London Towers

8 berths for teams qualified through their domestic competitions

GREECE: 2 berths

SPAIN: 2 berths

ITALY: 1 berth

YUGOSLAVIA: 1 berth

BELGIUM: 1 berth

POLAND: 1 berth

2 berths for teams finalist in Saporta Cup 2001-02

· Up to season 2000-01, FIBA ranking system was based on the results of the federations' clubs in the European competitions: Euroleague (C1), Saporta Cup (C2), and Korać Cup (C3). The assignment of points is as follows:

SUPROLEAGUE (C1)

Eliminated in Qualification Round (places 9-10): 6 pts.

Eliminated in 1/8 Final Play-Offs (places 1-8 in QR): 12 pts.

Eliminated in 1/4 Final Play-Offs: 18 pts.

Place 4 in Final Four: 36 pts.

Place 3 in Final Four: 54 pts.

Place 2 in Final Four: 72 pts.

Place 1 in Final Four: 144 pts.

SAPORTA CUP (C2)

Eliminated in Qualification Round (place 6): 3 pts.

Eliminated in Qualification Round (place 5): 4 pts.

Eliminated in 1/8 Final (places 1-4 in QR): 6 pts.

Eliminated in 1/4 Final: 12 pts.

Eliminated in 1/2 Final: 24 pts.

Runner-up: 48 pts.

Champion: 96 pts.

Korać CUP (C3)

Eliminated in Elimination Round I: 0,5 pts.

Eliminated in Elimination Round II: 1 pt.

Eliminated in Qualification Round (place 4): 2 pts.

Eliminated in Qualification Round (place 3): 2,5 pts.

Eliminated in 1/8 Final (places 1-2 in QR): 4 pts.

Eliminated in 1/4 Final: 8 pts.

Eliminated in 1/2 Final: 16 pts.

Runner-up: 32 pts.

Champion: 64 pts.

Each club will only receive the highest number of points obtained during the season in question. Each national federation will accumulate the number of points for all its men's clubs for the season in question. A final ranking coefficient will be established by dividing the result by the number of clubs which that national federation has registered. The final FIBA ranking will always be based on the results of the last three European club competition seasons.

COMPETITION SYSTEM

· In March 2000, FIBA announced a new competition format for Euroleague, to be applied from season 2000-01 on. The number of participants would still be 24, as in former editions, although distributed as follows:

4 berths: first 4 federations in FIBA Ranking 1998-2000: ITALY, GREECE, SPAIN, LITHUANIA.

12 berths: first 12 federations in FIBA Ranking 1998-2000: ITALY, GREECE, SPAIN, LITHUANIA, FRANCE, TURKEY, YUGOSLAVIA, ISRAEL, RUSSIA, CROATIA, GERMANY, POLAND.

2 berths: finalists in Euroleague 1999-2000: Panathinaikos (GRE) and Maccabi Tel-Aviv (ISR).

4 berths: federations with semi-finalist clubs in Saporta Cup 1999-2000: CROATIA, SLOVENIA*, LITHUANIA, ITALY.

2 berths: invitations (wild cards) freely assigned by FIBA.

*Note: Slovenia (ESL), the best qualified federation without teams in Euroleague, earns a berth corresponding to Greece (GRE), since FIBA establishes that no country can have more than 3 berths in C1 (as would be the case with a fourth Greek team in Euroleague).

The 24 participating clubs will be divided into 4 groups (A, B, C, D) of 6 clubs each in Preliminary Round I. These groups will be drawn taking into account: a) the ranking of the participating national federations in the last three seasons; b) the ranking of the participating clubs in the last five seasons. Each club will play the other clubs in its own group in home and away games. The 4 best placed clubs from each group will qualify for Preliminary Round II. In this round, the 16 surviving teams will be divided into 2 groups (E, F) of 8 clubs each, and they will play with the same round robin system as before, but only against those teams which they didn't face in Preliminary Round I. The top 4 teams from each group advance to the Quarter-Final Play-Offs. On this stage, each club will play two or three games, the first (and, if necessary, the third) of which will take place in the town of clubs qualified 1-2 in PR II. The second game will take place in the towns of clubs qualified 3-4. The 4 surviving clubs play the Final Four, with single games Semi-Finals and Final in the same venue to decide places 1 to 4 in Euroleague.

· The system above was supposed to be used in FIBA Euroleague. However, in the summer of 2000, after the creation of ULEB Euroleague (parallel competition where some of the best European clubs migrate), FIBA decides to create modern SuproLeague, which will gather only 20 teams in its first edition (2000-01), chosen by invitation rather than FIBA Ranking. These 20 participating clubs will be divided into 2 groups (A, B) of 10 clubs each during Qualification Round. These groups will be drawn taking into account: a) the ranking of the participating national federations in the last three seasons; b) the ranking of the participating clubs in the last five seasons. Each club will play the other clubs in its own group in home and away games. The 8 best placed clubs from each group will qualify for the Eighth-Final Play-Offs. On this stage, each club will play two or three games, the first (and, if necessary, the third) of which will take place in the town of clubs qualified 1-4 in QR. The second game will take place in the towns of clubs qualified 5-8. The winners of the Eighth-Final Play-Offs will qualify for the Quarter-Final Play-Offs, with the same system (games 1 and 3 in the town of the best qualified clubs). The 4 surviving clubs play the Final Four, with single games Semi-Finals and Final in the same venue to decide places 1 to 4 in SuproLeague.

ORGANIZATION OF GAMES (applicable before the merging of FIBA and ULEB)

· EXPENSES. Each organising (host) club will cover the following expenses: a) organising expenses; b) local transportation for visiting clubs (including the organisation of such transport) to/from the airport/railway station of the town of the organising club (valid also for the officials of the game), to/from the training session(s) and game, to/from any social activities organised by the organising club; c) expenses of the commissioner, referees and, if appropriate, the single judge and/or the FIBA representatives; d) costs for the production and entering of the statistics, coaches’ and players’ quotes, and the club information via the remote input tool; e) the cost for staging the post-game press conference in two languages; f) the cost for the production of press kits for each game and the club media guide; g) a maximum of 30 complimentary first category tickets and 6 VIP parking passes for FIBA members; h) the costs for the arena dressing (press conference and interview backdrops). Each visiting club will cover its own travel expenses (including visa) to the town of the organising club. The visiting club will also cover its own staying expenses unless a written agreement on different financial conditions has been reached with the organising club. For the eventual third game of the Eighth-Final Play-Offs and the Quarter-Final Play-Offs, the organising club shall cover the staying expenses of the visiting club in a first class hotel for a minimum of 2 days and 14 persons.

· PARTICIPANTS. For all FIBA Euroleague games, teams may consist of a maximum of 12 players, whose names shall be inscribed on the scoresheet. However, a minimum of 10 players must be present at the beginning of the game. Officials present in a game are: FIBA representative, single judge, commissioner, referees. The duty of the commissioner is to ensure that the game is played under regular conditions and should collaborate with the referees at all times to ensure that this is the case. At the end of a game, within one hour of completion, the commissioner will write a report describing any serious incident such as misbehaviour, disqualification, protests, acts of violence, etc.

· FORFEIT. If, before the draw, a club declines to participate after having registered with the FIBA SuproLeague, its national federation will be fined with up to DM 20,000. The national federation may replace the club with another. If, after the draw but before the competition begins, a club declines to participate after having registered with the FIBA SuproLeague, the following forfeit applies: a fine of up to DM 50,000 for the club and a fine of up to DM 20,000 for the national federation. The national federation may replace the club with another. If, after the first game of the competition, a club declines to play (except under circumstances beyond its control), the game is awarded to the opponents, the score shall be twenty to zero (20:0), and the forfeiting team shall receive zero (0) points in the classification. In addition, the club shall be fined DM 50,000 and the national federation DM 25,000. For a second forfeit, the club shall be disqualified for the remainder of that competition and shall also be disqualified for the next season for which the club qualifies. In addition, the club shall be fined DM 100,000 and the national federation DM 50,000. For the Eighth-Final Play-Offs or Quarter-Final Play-Offs (best of three), the team that forfeits in the first, second, or third game shall lose the Eighth-Final Play-Offs or Quarter-Final Play-Offs by forfeit. In addition, the club shall be fined DM 100,000 and the national federation DM 50,000. If a team enters the playing court more than 15 minutes late (except under circumstances beyond its control) receives a fine of up to DM 30,000.

· DEFAULTING. A team shall lose a game by default if, during the game, the number of players of that team on the court is less than two. If the game is awarded to the team currently in the lead, then the score when the game was stopped shall remain valid. If the game is awarded to the team currently not in the lead, then the score shall be recorded as two to zero (2:0) in this team’s favour. Furthermore, the defaulting team shall receive one point in the classification. For the Eighth-Final Play-Offs and Quarter-Final Play-Offs (best of three), the team that defaults in the first, second, or third game shall lose the Eighth-Final Play-Offs or Quarter-Final Play-Offs by default.

· INELIGIBILITY OF PLAYERS. Use of unlicensed or ineligible player(s) as per the current Regulations governing the FIBA SuproLeague is also penalized. A first infraction implies that the game is awarded to the opponents of the offending team. If the offending team lost the actual game by more than 20 points, the result shall stand; if not, then the game shall be awarded to the opponents of the offending team by a score of twenty to zero (20:0). In either case, the offending team shall receive zero points in the classification. In addition, there shall be a fine of DM 10,000 to 50,000. A second infraction implies that the team shall be disqualified for the remainder of that competition. In addition, there shall be a fine of DM 100,000.

· PRESENTATION OF THE GAME. In order to strengthen the brand identity of Euroleague and to achieve a high quality television production, all games must be presented in the same manner. The following countdown schedule before the tip-off is mandatory: 1) 40-30 minutes before the game: all players enter arena and court for warm-up together. 2) 6 minutes before the game: official team presentation (first visiting team, second home team); players enter the court in the following order: bench players in numerical order, 5 starters in numerical order, and coach; players are announced in the local language and in English, no national anthem will be played. 3) 3 minutes before the game: final warm-up.

· ARENA. Games are played on parquet (wood flooring). The court dimensions shall be 28x15 m and, at every point, at least 2 m from the advertising boards and all obstructions. There shall be a further boundary line drawn in a sharply contrasting colour and at least 2 m in width. The further boundary line and restricted area shall be of the same colour for all FIBA Euroleague floors. The floor shall be clear of any lines and all markings, except those permitted by the Official Basketball Rules. The playing court shall be lit to a minimum of 1,500 lux, in order to meet television requirements. Only 14 seats are allowed in the team bench area. The height of the ceiling or the lowest obstruction shall be at least 7 m above the playing court. The seating capacity of the hall shall be at least 3,000 (at least 4,000 applicable as of the 2001-02 season); it is recommended that all seats be numbered and that all spectators be seated and at a distance of not less than 5 m from the playing court. The playing and spectator areas shall have a temperature of between 16º C and 25º C. The FIBA SuproLeague logo must be displayed on the lower left-hand corner of the glass backboard, on the backboard support padding, and on the upper part of the ring connecting plate.

· MEDIA. All participating clubs shall produce a Media Guide and send it to the Secretariat of FIBA. The club media guides shall be in two languages (local language and English) and contain the following information: club executive and administrative staff (if possible, including pictures), history and accomplishments of the club, team roster, players' and coaches' biographies as well as information on the stadium, the city, etc. The organisers shall prepare and distribute for each game of the FIBA SuproLeague press kits to the media in the local language and English containing a maximum of information on the two clubs (team rosters, injuries, statistics, etc.), the venue, the time of the game, and general information concerning the hall and town of the venue. At half-time and the end of the game, the organising club shall distribute the game statistics among media.

· CLOTHING. The front of the shirt shall conform to the following provisions: 1) The manufacturer's trademark may appear, but it must not be larger than 12 cm². Its position shall be on the top right shoulder seam. 2) The player’s number must appear and be clearly visible and at least 10 cm high; any other markings on the front of the shirt must be at a distance of at least 5 cm from the player’s number. 3) The name or the badge/symbol of the club must appear on the front of the shirts above the advertising, and shall not exceed 10 cm in height. 4) Advertising of one sponsor only is permitted provided that the written text or the sponsor's logo has a maximum height of 8 cm and maximum length of 40 cm (the shirt sponsor shall be the same for the complete season). 5) The FIBA SuproLeague logo must appear and be clearly visible below the left-hand shoulder seam and above the player's number on the front of the shirt. 6) No other marks, logos, etc. shall appear on the front of the shirt. The back of the shirt shall conform to the following provisions: 1) The player's surname must appear above the player’s number and shall comprise only one line of text; the height of the writing must be between 6 cm and 8 cm. 2) The player's number must appear and be clearly visible and at least 20 cm high; any other markings on the back of the shirt must have a distance of at least 5 cm from the player's number. 3) The name of the city of the club must appear (in Roman letters) below the player’s number and shall comprise only one line of text; the height of the writing must be between 6 cm and 8 cm, and the name of the city must be visible even when the shirt is tucked into the shorts. 4) Advertising is prohibited on the back of the shirts. 5) No other marks, logos, etc. shall appear on the back of the shirt. Advertising and the player’s name are not permitted on shorts. The FIBA Euroleague logo must appear and be clearly visible on the front of the shorts.

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