The Euroleague 2008-09 season is the ninth international basketballclub competition for elite clubs throughout Europe under the ULEB umbrella. The season, which features 24 teams from 13 different countries, will culminate in the 2008-09 Euroleague Final Four at the new O2 World arena in Berlin, Germany.[1] The new season is under new format. Defending champions are CSKA Moscow.
The first phase is a regular season, in which the competing teams are drawn into four groups, each containing six teams. Each team plays every other team in its group at home and away, resulting in 10 games for each team in the first stage. The top 4 teams in each group advance to the next round. Games will be played from October 22, 2008 to January 15, 2009[3].
Top 16
The surviving teams are divided into four groups of four teams each, and again a round robin system is adopted resulting in 6 games each, with the top 2 teams advancing to the quarterfinals. Tiebreakers are identical to those used in the Regular Season. Games will be held from January 29 till March 13.
Quarterfinals
In the quarterfinals, the top placed teams from each Top 16 group play second placed teams from a different group in a best-of-five playoff series, with the winners of those series advancing to the Final Four. This is the first season in which the quarterfinals will be best-of-five; previously, they had been best-of-three. The quarterfinals matches will be palyed from March 24 until April 8.
Final Four
The culminating stage of the Euroleague in which the four remaining teams play a semifinal match and the winners of those advance to the final. The losers play in a third-place playoff. The team which is victorious in the Final will be Euroleague champion. The Final Four games may played from May 1 to May 3.
Spain
Italy
Greece
Turkey
France
Lithuania
Germany
Croatia
Russia
Israel
Slovenia
Serbia
Poland
