Champions FIBA European Champions Cup (1958–1991) Season Country Club 1958 Rīgas ASK 1958–59 Rīgas ASK 1959–60 Rīgas ASK 1960–61 CSKA Moscow 1961–62 Dinamo Tbilisi 1962–63 CSKA Moscow 1963–64 Real Madrid 1964–65 Real Madrid 1965–66 Simmenthal Milano 1966–67 Real Madrid 1967–68 Real Madrid 1968–69 CSKA Moscow 1969–70 Ignis Varese 1970–71 CSKA Moscow 1971–72 Ignis Varese 1972–73 Ignis Varese 1973–74 Real Madrid 1974–75 Ignis Varese 1975–76 Mobilgirgi Varese 1976–77 Maccabi Tel Aviv 1977–78 Real Madrid 1978–79 Bosna 1979–80 Real Madrid 1980–81 Maccabi Tel Aviv 1981–82 Squibb Cantù 1982–83 Ford Cantù 1983–84 Banco di Roma Virtus 1984–85 Cibona 1985–86 Cibona 1986–87 Tracer Milano 1987–88 Tracer Milano 1988–89 Jugoplastika 1989–90 Jugoplastika 1990–91 Pop 84
FIBA European League (1991–1996) Season Country Club 1991–92 Partizan 1992–93 Limoges CSP 1993–94 7up Joventut 1994–95 Real Madrid 1995–96 Panathinaikos FIBA EuroLeague (1996–2000) Season Country Club 1996–97 Olympiacos 1997–98 Kinder Bologna 1998–99 Žalgiris 1999–00 Panathinaikos
FIBA SuproLeague (2000–2001) Season Country Club 2000–01 Maccabi Tel Aviv
Euroleague (2000–2016) Season Country Club 2000–01 Kinder Bologna 2001–02 Panathinaikos 2002–03 FC Barcelona 2003–04 Maccabi Tel Aviv 2004–05 Maccabi Tel Aviv 2005–06 CSKA Moscow 2006–07 Panathinaikos 2007–08 CSKA Moscow 2008–09 Panathinaikos 2009–10 Regal FC Barcelona 2010–11 Panathinaikos 2011–12 Olympiacos 2012–13 Olympiacos 2013–14 Maccabi Tel Aviv 2014–15 Real Madrid 2015–16 CSKA Moscow
EuroLeague (2016–present) Season Country Club 2016–17 Fenerbahçe 2017–18 Real Madrid 2018–19 CSKA Moscow 2019–20 Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic 2020–21 Anadolu Efes 2021–22 Anadolu Efes 2022–23 Real Madrid 2023–24 Panathinaikos AKTOR 2024–25 Fenerbahce
FIBA European Champions Cup for men's clubs – origins and early history (1958–1960)
L'Équipe is widely credited for birthing the idea of a European club competition, first and foremost, in European football. Basketball was soon to latch onto the quickly successful idea, and the concept was discussed by FIBA, during the 1957 FIBA EuroBasket, in Bulgaria. Then FIBA Secretary General William Jones, set up a commission consisting of Borislav Stanković (Yugoslavia), Raimundo Saporta (Spain), Robert Busnel (France), Miloslav Kříž (Czechoslovakia), and Nikolai Semashko (Soviet Union), to come up with a proposal.
The commission invited Europe's national basketball federations to send their national domestic league champions, L'Equipe donated a trophy, and in 1958, the FIBA European Cup For Men's Champion Clubs, or, FIBA European Champions' Cup, started, with the inaugural 1958 FIBA European Champions Cup season.
Clubs from Eastern Europe (from the former Soviet bloc) dominated the early years of the competition. They not only won the first six editions of the competition (Rīgas ASK three times, CSKA Moscow twice, and Dinamo Tbilisi once), but also managed to reach the finals as runners-up four times in the first six years (Academic twice, Dinamo Tbilisi once, and Rīgas ASK once).
The tall Soviet player Jānis Krūmiņš, was the man in the middle for Rīgas ASK's initial league three-peat championship, as he was an unmatched dominant force around the basket.
The 1960s, Real Madrid and CSKA Moscow rise In the 1960–61 season, things began to change. The main Western European basketball club, Real Madrid, started to show signs of ambition, and was eliminated only after the semifinals, by Rīgas ASK.
The following two years, the Spanish Primera División champions, Real Madrid, found their way to the final game, but lost both times, versus Dinamo Tbilisi (1961–62 season) and CSKA Moscow (1962–63 season). Eventually, Real won the first of its ten European crowns in the 1963–64 season, by beating the Czechs of Spartak ZJŠ Brno in the final.
However, that same season, the USSR Premier League champions did not participate, because the senior Soviet Union national team (made up of 90% of the players from CSKA) was preparing for the 1964 Summer Olympic Games. Anyway, this season was a big twist for European club basketball, as it marked the beginning of the domination of the "wealthy" Western European clubs.
In the 1965–66 season, Olimpia Milano, then known for sponsorship reasons as Simmenthal Milano, was in part led to championship by a young and smart American small forward: Bill Bradley, who would later become an NBA champion in 1970 and 1973, with the New York Knicks. Still later, Bradley would become a senator for the state of New Jersey and, finally, a candidate for the United States Presidency. Bradley, who was studying at Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, took advantage of his year in Europe, to give decisive help to Milano.
Real Madrid won the 1967–68 season's final. Real Madrid could rely on players like Clifford Luyk, who was the competition's first naturalized American player with such a big role on a team, Emiliano Rodríguez, Miles Aiken, Bob Burgess, and later Wayne Brabender. In the 1968–69 season's final, CSKA Moscow, inspired by the talented player Sergei Belov, managed to beat Real Madrid in Barcelona in the final. The young Belov had 19 points that night, but his teammate, the big tall center Vladimir Andreev, exploded for 37 points in the game.
The 1970s, Varese–Meneghin Dynasty After the dynasties of the Soviet clubs and Real Madrid, the 1970s were, without any doubt, the decade of the Italian League club Varese.
Varese found a way, year after year, to reach the final game of the competition. In fact, Varese played in all ten of the league's finals in the 1970s decade, and they won five of them. Real Madrid, CSKA Moscow, the Yugoslav club Bosna Sarajevo, and the Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv, were the other champions of the decade.
At that time, Varese was led in part by the legendary center, Dino Meneghin, whom was surrounded by other players such as, one of the best scorers in Italian League history, Bob Morse, the Mexican shooter Manuel Raga, Ottorino Flaborea, John Fultz, Ivan Bisson, etc.
In the 1970–71 season's final, CSKA Moscow won its last top-tier European title, until they finally won it again in the year 2006. They beat Varese (or Ignis Varese for sponsorship reasons) in the final, thanks to Sergei Belov's 24 points. Varese, after a tough win in the championship game against Jugoplastika Split in the 1971–72 season's final, won the championship one more time, against CSKA in the 1972–73 season's final. They won the title despite the play of Sergei Belov. Belov, was once again the final's top scorer, with 36 points scored in the 1973 championship game.
In the 1973–74 season final, Ignis Varese, after almost securing the win, was upset by Real Madrid, on an unbelievable late surge, led by Wayne Brabender and Carmelo Cabrera.
In 1976–77 season's final, the Israeli Super League champions Maccabi Tel Aviv, whose leaders Jim Boatwright and Miki Berkovich, combined for 43 points against Mobilgirgi Varese, won the first of their six European-wide crowns, which was a big surprise to the world of European club basketball. Finally, in the 1978–79 season's final, the Yugoslavian First Federal League's school of basketball began to dazzle Europe. Bosna Sarajevo, led by a young head coach (32 years old) named Bogdan Tanjević, beat Emerson Varese, in the final at Grenoble, France. The great performances in the game of the club's shooters, Žarko Varajić (45 points), and Mirza Delibašić (30 points), gave Yugoslavia its first top-tier European club title.
The 1980s, Italian and Yugoslav dominance What could have been the decade of Maccabi Tel Aviv (six finals appearances, but only one win), eventually became a triumph for Italian League basketball clubs (seven finals appearances, and five wins).
Italy's top league managed to generate three different European club champions (Cantù, Virtus Roma, and Olimpia Milano) in only seven years. The 1980s decade was also marked by the definitive emergence of the elegant and inspired Yugoslav First Federal League's style of basketball play. First, the Yugoslav club Cibona Zagreb, led by the phenomenal scorer Dražen Petrović, won the league's final two times in a row (in 1985 and 1986). After that, the Yugoslav club Split Croatia, won three consecutive titles (in 1989, 1990 and 1991), and revealed the talent of its star players Dino Rađa, Toni Kukoč, and others, like (Zoran Savić, Zoran Sretenović, Velimir Perasović, Duško Ivanović, Žan Tabak, Goran Sobin, Luka Pavićević,...).
In the 1982 Final and the 1983 Final, Cantù, the traditional runner-up to the mighty Varese in the Italian League, won back-to-back championships, thanks to the young scorer Antonello Riva, who scored 16 points in the first final, and then 18 points in the second final. The former Varese star, Dino Meneghin, who had since joined Olimpia Milano, had imported his winning tradition to the Capital of Lombardy, to play in his eleventh European Final in 1983. However, he eventually lost the game, in what seemed like a wrestling match between him Wallace Bryant of Ford Cantù, in what was one of the most physical and "ugliest" finals of all time.
After Cantù's back-to-back championships, Banco di Roma Virtus won the league's title following year. Its American player, Larry Wright led the way in the 1984 Final, as he scored 27 points in the game. Following that was the reign of Cibona Zagreb, and the club's player, marvelous Dražen Petrović.
"Little Mozart", as Petrović was nicknamed, scored 36 points against Real Madrid in the 1985 championship game, and then added 22 points against Arvydas Sabonis and Žalgiris Kaunas in the final a year later. Italy got back to its back-to-back title tradition in 1987, and 1988, as Olimpia Milano, then bearing the sponsorship name of Tracer Milano, beat Maccabi Tel Aviv Elite twice in the finals. Then, in the 1989 Final, the wonderful generation of Jugoplastika Split (Kukoč, Rađa, Perasović, Savić, etc.) took over, and dominated European club basketball, as the team won three straight championships.
The 1990s, the Greek rise Prior to the 1991–92 season, the league changed its name from the FIBA European Champions Cup, to the FIBA European League. It then changed its name again prior to the 1996–97 season, to the FIBA EuroLeague, which marked the first use of the name EuroLeague, in the competition's history. The 1990s decade saw two of the most exciting and controversial endings in the history of the competition.
In the 1992 Final, Partizan Belgrade's young duo of Sasha Djordjević and Sasha Danilović, led the underdog team to a title, which was the fourth consecutive title for a Yugoslav Federal League club. Danilović was named the EuroLeague Final Four MVP, but it was Djordjević's last second, coast-to-coast three-pointer, which lifted Partizan to a 71–70 victory against the Spanish club Montigalà Joventut Badalona.
The following 1993 Final saw another underdog take the league's title, as the French League club Limoges CSP, stunned the Toni Kukoč-led club of Benetton Treviso, in the title game.
In the 1994 Final, 7up Joventut Badalona made up for their last second defeat against Partizan Belgrade two years earlier. That time, it was the Spanish League club's turn to stage a late rally, which came against an Olympiacos Piraeus team with the regular season's best record. Joventut power forward Corny Thompson, hit a three-pointer (just his fifth of the entire season), to put his team up by 2-points, with 19 seconds remaining in the game.
Olympiacos Piraeus had a chance to tie the game at the free throw line, but the Yugoslavian national team star Žarko Paspalj, only made one of two free throws, and the "La Penya" club held on for the win.