The 2018–19 Liga Națională season will be the 69th season of the Liga Națională, the highest professional basketball league in Romania. This will be the first season under a new format, which increases the number of teams to 22. CSM U Oradea are the defending champions.
Competition format The Romanian Basketball Federation agreed a change in the competition format for the 2018–19 season:Decizii ale Consiliului Director din 23.05.2018 . frbaschet.ro Cum va arăta Liga Națională de Baschet Masculin sezonul viitor . totalbaschet.ro
22 teams (divided into 3 value groups: A, B and C) played the regular season, consisting in a double-legged round robin format. Group A consist of the top 8 ranked teams from the 2017–18 Liga Națională. Group B consist of top 4 ranked teams from the 2017–18 Liga I. Group C consist of the other teams that played in the 2017–18 Liga Națională, 2017–18 Liga I or newly formed teams (which respect the financial and infrastructure criteria), but which not have the right to advance in this season to the final stages of the championship. At the end of the regular season, teams are split into four groups (Red, Yellow, Blue and Green). Red Group consist of the top 6 ranked teams from the Group A. Yellow Group consist of the bottom 2 ranked teams from the Group A, top 3 teams from the Group B and the winner of the Group C. Blue Group consist of the 4th place from the Group B and 2nd to 6th places from the Group C. Green Group consist of the 7th to 10th places from the Group C. All teams from the Red Group (from 1st to 6th place) and the top 2 ranked teams from the Yellow Group will join the play-offs. In this knockout stage, quarterfinals and semifinals will be played with a best-of-five-games format. To decide the teams ranked between 5th and 8th place will be used the best-of-three-games format. The rest of the teams from the Yellow, Blue and Green Groups (16 teams) will form 2 groups of 8 teams and will play to decide the final rankings. Last six teams of play out phase (17th-22nd place) will be relegated to Liga I
Team changes Promoted from Liga I
Cuza Sport Brăila Aurel Vlaicu București Athletic Constanța CSO Voluntari CSM BC Sighetu Marmației CSM Mediaș Rapid București ACS Târgu Jiu Agronomia București Universitatea Cluj-Napoca
Excluded teams BC Mureș was dissolved.Inevitabilul s-a produs! BC Mureș s-a retras din Liga Națională. totalbaschet.ro
Other teams Miercurea Ciuc, CSM Focșani and CSM Târgu Mureș were enrolled in the Liga Națională.22 de echipe înscrise în primul sezon al Ligii Naționale, în noul format de „Superligă”. totalbaschet.ro
Teams Group A
Team City Arena Capacity Craiova Craiova Polyvalent Hall 4,215 Dinamo Stiinta Bucharest Dinamo 2,538 Oradea Oradea Arena Antonio Alexe 2,000 SCM Timișoara Constantin Jude 2,200 Sibiu Sibiu Transilvania 3,000 SteauaBucharest Mihai Viteazu 2,000 Polyvalent Hall 3,500U-BT Cluj-Napoca Cluj-Napoca Polyvalent Hall 7,308 Horia Demian 2,525 U FC Argeș Pitești Trivale 2,000
Group B
Team City Arena Capacity Athletic Constanța Sala Sporturilor 1,500 Cuza Sport Brăila Danubius 2,000 CSM Mediaș Sala Sporturilor 461 Voluntari Voluntari Gabriela Szabo 1,100
Group C
Team City Arena Capacity Agronomia București București Arena de Baschet 350 Aurel Vlaicu București București Sala Unirea 300 Focșani Focșani Vrancea 1,400 Miercurea Ciuc Miercurea Ciuc Eröss Zsolt 1,700 Phoenix Galați Galați Dunărea 1,500 Rapid București București Rapid 1,500 Sighetu Marmației Sighetu Marmației Dragoș Vodă 200 Târgu Jiu Târgu Jiu Sala Sporturilor 1,500Târgu Mureș Târgu Mureș Sala Sporturilor 2,000 Universitatea Cluj Cluj-Napoca Horia Demian 2,525
Regular season Group A League table
Results
Group B League table
Results
Group C League table
Results
Second stage Red Group League table
Results
Yellow Group League table
Results
Blue Group League table
Results
Green Group League table
Results
Play-offs All series were played in a best-of-five games format, except the third place match which was played in best-of-three games format. Bracket
5th to 8th All series were played in a best-of-three games format.
9th to 16th position All series were played by two-legged series. Bracket
13th to 16th All series were played in a best-of-three games format.
17th to 21st position
Final rankings TeamQualification or relegation 1 Oradea 2019–20 Basketball Champions League 2 Sibiu 2019–20 FIBA Europe Cup 3 U-BT Cluj 4 Craiova 5 U FC Argeș 6 Timișoara 7 Steaua 8 Dinamo Știința 9 Voluntari10 Phoenix Galați11 Târgu Mureș12 Mediaș13 Athletic Constanța14 Sighetu Marmației15 Miercurea Ciuc16 Focșani17 Agronomia București Relegation to Liga I18 Rapid București19 Târgu Jiu20 Universitatea Cluj-Napoca21 Aurel Vlaicu București22 Cuza Sport Brăila Withdrew
Romanian clubs in European competitions Team Competition ProgressOradea Champions League First qualifying roundFIBA Europe Cup Regular seasonSteaua Regular season U-BT Cluj-Napoca Second qualifying round
References
External links Official site of the Romanian Basketball Federation Halfcourt.info (Romanian and English) Numaibaschet.ro (Romanian) Baschetromania.ro (Romanian)