The Albanian Basketball League for women is a league competition featuring professional basketball clubs from Albania. It was founded in 1946 from the Albanian Basketball Association, several days after the latter was formed. It is the top level basketball league in Albanian from its foundation. The team with the most championships is KB Tirana with 42 championships.Shkodra Sport
The Albanian Basketball League consists of 12 professional basketball clubs in Albania and it is one of the oldest basketball competitions in the Balkans having started in 1946. The sport rapidly grew in Albania and by the 1970s almost every city and town had its own basketball club and basketball field. After communism fell many of the basketball clubs folded as many players left the country to play for foreign teams. The basketball attendance decreased and the popularity of this sport declined worryingly. However, after 1993 basketball rose up again with many cities re-establishing their teams. Now in Albania there are twelve professional teams while there are plenty of amateur teams ready to enter the league.
History
The Albanian Basketball League is one of the oldest continuing basketball competitions in the region of the Balkans, having started in 1946. The league was formed less than two years after the Communist Party of Albania gained control of the country, and the sport gradually grew in popularity over the years before experiencing a rapid rise in popularity in the 1970s, leading to most cities and towns in Albania forming their own basketball clubs and building basketball grounds. Following the fall of communism in 1991 many basketball clubs were forced to fold due to lack of any investment, which led to the decline in the popularity of the sport as a whole in the country. However, since 1993 there has been some re-establishment of the folded teams as private investment along with some state funded has allowed teams to continue functioning.
Competition The members of the Albanian Basketball League are grouped in two divisions: A1 League and B2 League. Each division has six teams and they have to play four times against each other in two different phases during the regular season. In every phase a club plays each of the others twice, once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents. This makes a total of 20 games played per season in the regular season.
After the regular season ends the top four clubs qualify for the play-offs, where the team placed first faces the one placed fourth while the second and the third placed teams play each other. From these encounters qualifies the team that gets first two victories while games are played once home, once away until the two victories are reached. The teams that win their encounters qualify for the finals which are played in the clubs respective grounds, the game will once be played home and once away, depending on the draw. The team that gets first the three victories is crowned as champion.
Clubs that win get two points that the ones that lose get one point. At the end of the regular season the bottom two clubs miss the play-offs. The bottom club gets relegated while the fifth placed club will play the second placed of the B2 League. The team that wins the play-out has the right to play in A1 League.
Winners SeasonChampionRunner upResult194717 Nëntori194817 Nëntori194917 Nëntori195017 Nëntori195117 Nëntori195217 Nëntori195317 Nëntori195417 Nëntori195517 Nëntori195617 Nëntori (*)195717 Nëntori195817 Nëntori195917 Nëntori196017 Nëntori196117 Nëntori196217 Nëntori196317 Nëntori196417 Nëntori196617 Nëntori196817 Nëntori (**)196917 Nëntori197017 Nëntori197117 Nëntori197217 Nëntori197317 Nëntori197417 Nëntori1975B.C. Apolonia197617 Nëntori1977 PBC Flamurtari 1978BC Skënderbeu Korçë1979PBC Flamurtari 1980PBC Flamurtari 1981PBC Flamurtari 198217 Nëntori198317 Nëntori1984PBC Flamurtari 1985PBC Flamurtari 198617 Nëntori (***)198717 Nëntori198817 Nëntori1989Partizani Tirana1990PBC Flamurtari 199117 Nëntori1992 KB Tirana1993 KB Tirana1994 KB Tirana1995 KB Tirana1996PBC Flamurtari 1997 KB Tirana1998 KB Tirana1999 KB Tirana (****)2000BC Skënderbeu Korçë2001PBC Flamurtari 2002BC Luftëtari2003BC Luftëtari2004BC Luftëtari2005PBC Flamurtari (*)2006PBC Flamurtari 2007PBC Flamurtari 2008PBC Flamurtari 2009PBC Flamurtari 2010PBC Flamurtari 2011PBC Flamurtari KB Tirana2-12012B.C. ApoloniaPBC Flamurtari 3-22013PBC Flamurtari B.C. Apolonia3-02014PBC Flamurtari B.C. Apolonia3-02015PBC Flamurtari B.C. Apolonia3-22016PBC Flamurtari (**)2017PBC Flamurtari KB Tirana3-12018PBC Flamurtari KB Tirana3-02019 KB TiranaTirana II3-02020 - - -2021PBC FlamurtariBC Partizani3-02022PBC FlamurtariBC Partizani3-0Panorama Sport2023PBC FlamurtariBC Partizani3-1Panorama Sport2024 KB TiranaPBC Flamurtari3-1Telesport.al2025PBC Flamurtari KB Tirana3-0
Championship winning teams Team Winners KB Tirana 42 PBC Flamurtari 26 BC Luftëtari 3 B.C Apolonia 2 BC Skënderbeu Korçë 2 BC Partizani Tirana 1
References
Also look Albanian Basketball Cup (Women) Albanian Basketball Supercup (Women)