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The Euroleague was established by FIBA and it operated under its umbrella until Summer of 2000 concluding with the season 1999/2000. That was when ULEB , the Union of European Leagues of Basketball, was created by 24 richest club teams (most of them from Spain , Italy and Greece ). Amazingly, they realized FIBA never copyright protected the Euroleague name and ULEB simply swiped it without any legal ramifications. Understandably, FIBA brass were fuming, but having no legal recourse to do anything they had to find a new name for their league. So, the following 2000/2001 season started with 2 separate top European basketball competitions: FIBA Suproleague (known as FIBA Euroleague up to that point), and the brand new ULEB Euroleague. The rift in European club basketball was on and it showed no signs of letting up initially. Top clubs were also split between the two leagues: Panathinaikos, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Efes Pilsen, Pau-Orthez, Partizan, etc. stayed with FIBA 's, while Virtus (Kinder) Bologna, FC Barcelona, Saski Baskonia (TauCeramica), AEK Athens, Cibona, etc. joined ULEB 's. In May 2001, Europe had two continental champions. The leaders of both organizations realized the need to come up with a single competition. Negotiating from the position of strength ULEB dictated proceedings and FIBA essentially had no choice but to agree to their terms. As a result Euroleague was fully integrated under ULEB's umbrella and teams that competed in FIBA Suproleague in season 2000/2001 joined it as well. In essence, the authority in European basketball was divided over club-country lines. FIBA stayed in charge of national team competitions (Eurobasket, World Championships, Olympics) while ULEB took over the club competitions. From that point FIBA's Korac Cup and Saporta Cup lasted one more season before folding, which is when ULEB launched its ULEB Cup . EUROLEAGUE FORMAT The Euroleague is currently contested in four phases. The first phase is the regular season, in which 24 teams, divided into three groups of eight, participate. Each team plays two games (home-and-home) against every other team in its group. At the end of the regular season, the field is cut from 24 to 16; the surviving teams are divided into four groups. The second phase, known as the Top 16, then begins. As in the regular season, each Top 16 group is contested in a double Round-robin format. New for the 2004 - 05 season was a quarterfinal round. Before, only the group winners advanced to the Final Four (see below). Now, the first- and second-place teams from each group advance. In the quarterfinal round, the first-place team from each group is matched against a second-place team from another group in a Best-of-three Series , with two of the three possible games scheduled at the first-place team's home court. The Final Four , held at a predetermined site, features the winners of the four quarterfinal series in one-off knockout matches. The semifinal losers play for third place; the winners play for the championship. The 2006 Final Four was held April 28-30 at Sazka Arena in Prague , Czech Republic . The semifinal pairings and results were:
Maccabi were trying to become the first team to win three consecutive titles in the competition since the Split teams of 1989-91. Alongside Maccabi in the 2006 Final Four were two other clubs that appeared in the 2005 Final Four, held in Moscow . The first semifinal was a rematch of the 2005 final, with Maccabi once again defeating TAU with tight, aggressive defense and accurate shooting. The second semifinal saw last season's fourth-place team, CSKA, come from behind in the third quarter to beat the only "newcomer" in Barça. The final matches on April 30 were:
TEAMS OF 2005-2006 EUROLEAGUE Croatia
France
Germany
Greece
Israel
Italy
Lithuania
Poland
Russia
Serbia And Montenegro
Slovenia
Spain
Turkey
CHAMPIONS 1958-2006
TITLES BY TEAM
The titles are dated back to 1958 when the first European Champions cup was played. TITLES BY COUNTRY TRIVIA The small area of less than 40 km² in the northern metropolitan Area of Milano there are 3 teams that won totally 10 European Champions Cup and played a total of 16 finals of the same cup:
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