Balkan International Basketball League

Balkan International Basketball League

Current season, competition or edition: 2023–24 BIBL season
BIBL Official Logo
Sport	Basketball
Founded	2008
No. of teams	Variable by season
Countries	Current countries  Bulgaria  Cyprus  Israel  Kosovo  Montenegro  North Macedonia Former countries  Albania  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Croatia  Greece  Kazakhstan  Romania  Serbia  Ukraine
Continent	FIBA Europe (Europe)
Most recent champion(s)	Sigal Prishtina (3rd title)
Most titles	Sigal Prishtina (3 titles)
TV partner(s)	RIK 2 sportmedia.tv YouTube RTSH
Official website	balkanleague.net

The Balkan International Basketball League (BIBL), also known as the Balkan League and as the Delasport BIBL Balkan League for sponsorship reasons, is a multinational professional basketball league that features mostly clubs from the Balkans. The league included teams from countries as Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Cyprus and Israel. The most recent league champion is Sigal Prishtina from Kosovo.

The purpose of the Balkan International Basketball League is to provide competitive international play for clubs in the Balkans that would otherwise be unable to participate in international basketball. The league achieves this by providing financial support to all participating clubs in order to ease the costs that make international play difficult.^[1] Among other milestones, the league is also the first international league of its kind to include teams from Kosovo.

Format[edit]

After the 2017–2018 season, the Balkan International Basketball League introduced a new, simplified competition format. Under this format, the competition now typically features a total of between 6 – 8 teams and the tournament is divided into two phases: the regular season, whereby all participating teams will play each other in a double round robin both home and away and following the regular season's conclusion, the first and second placed teams will automatically qualify to the Final Four, whereas the third placed team will have to play the sixth placed team and the fourth will play the fifth at home and away to determine which team will advance to the Final Four. After this, the winning teams will advance to the final four to determined that season's BIBL Balkan League champions.^[2]

Additionally, at the start of the 2020–2021 season 12 teams from Israel participated in the league in order to have access to competitive games during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[3]

Championships[edit]

Season	Host		Champion	Result	Runner-up	Arena
2008–09	Samokov		Rilski Sportist	84–77	Feršped Rabotnički	Arena Samokov
2009–10	Sofia		Levski Sofia	77–65	Lovćen	Universiada Hall
2010–11	Kavadarci		Feni Industries	88–75	Rilski Sportist	Jasmin Sports Hall
2011–12	Gan Ner		Hapoel Gilboa Galil	89–84	Levski Sofia	Gan Ner Sports Hall
2012–13	Samokov		Hapoel Gilboa Galil	87–79	Levski Sofia	Arena Samokov
2013–14	Pristina		Levski Sofia	75–69	Hapoel Gilboa Galil	Pallati i Rinisë dhe Sporteve
2014–15	Pristina Samokov		Sigal Prishtina	74−72 80–71	Rilski Sportist	Pallati i Rinisë dhe Sporteve Arena Samokov
2015–16	Pristina Bar		Sigal Prishtina	82−68 68−75	Mornar	Pallati i Rinisë dhe Sporteve Sportska dvorana Topolica
2016–17	Stara Zagora Kumanovo		Beroe	84−55 77−73	Kumanovo	Obshtinska zala Ivan Vazov Sports Hall Kumanovo
2017–18	Samokov		Levski Sofia	83−72	Bashkimi	Arena Samokov
2018–19	Tirana		Blokotehna	82–68	Teuta	Feti Borova Sport Hall
2019–20	Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
2020–21	Holon	Hapoel Holon	91–75	Academic Plovdiv	Holon Toto Hall
2021–22	Nahariya	Hapoel Galil Elyon	86–70	Maccabi Haifa	Ein Sara Sport Hall
2022–23	Stara Zagora	Hapoel Be'er Sheva/Dimona	99−95	Peja	Obshtinska zala Ivan Vazov
2023-24	Limassol	PAYABL EKA AEL	67-72	Sigal Prishtina	Nicos Solomonides Arena

Titles by club[edit]

	Club	Championships	Runner-ups	Championship years
1	Sigal Prishtina	3	—	2014–15, 2015–16,2023-24
2	Levski Sofia	3	2	2009–10, 2013–14, 2017–18
3	Hapoel Gilboa Galil	2	1	2011–12, 2012–13
4	Rilski Sportist	1	2	2008–09
5	Feni Industries	1	—	2010–11
	Beroe			2016–17
	Blokotehna			2018–19
	Hapoel Holon			2020–21
	Hapoel Galil Elyon			2021–22
	Hapoel Be'er Sheva/Dimona			2022–23
10	Feršped Rabotnički	—	1
	Lovćen
	Mornar
	Kumanovo
	Bashkimi
	Teuta
	Academic Plovdiv
	Maccabi Haifa
	Peja

Titles by country[edit]

	Country	Championships	Runner-ups	Championship years
1	Bulgaria	5	5	2008–09, 2009–10, 2013–14, 2016–17, 2017–18
2	Israel	5	2	2011–12, 2012–13, 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23
3	North Macedonia	2	2	2011–12, 2018–19
	Kosovo	2	2	2014–15, 2015–16
5	Montenegro	—	2
6	Albania	—	1

Clubs (2023-24 season)[edit]

Team	Arena	Capacity	Country
AEL Limassol B.C.	Nicos Solomonides Arena	2,500	Limassol, CYP
Sigal Prishtina	Pallati I Rinise Dhe Sportheve	2,800	Pristina, KOS
KK Lovćen 1947	Sportski Center Cetinje	1,500	Lovćen, MNE
KK Pljevlja	Sport Cener Ada	3,500	Pljevlja, MNE
KB Peja	Karakaci Arena	2,500	Peja, KOS

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• BIBL Official Website
• Eurobasket.com League Page
• BallinEurope.com Article