<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Yesterday the Euroleague Basketball Board met at Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona in order to decide and announce the new changes that will be set from the upcoming season. These changes have to do with the format of the competition, the new rules that were announced by FIBA and some changes that are considered to be set during the next years. First and most important, the format of the Euroleague stages is changed. There are going to be 4 groups of 6 teams each, and the first best-4 of every group will continue to the top-16 stage. The structure then will be the same, 4 groups of 4 teams where the best 2 continue to the quarter-finals. This was decided in order the teams play fewer games during the regular season of the competition. Another fact that must be noticed, is that the Board is considering of some changes in order to up-level the standards of the competition, like demanding by the teams the capacity of their courts to be more than 10,000 in order to have long-term contracts with Uleb.</div> http://www.talkbasket.net/news/euroleague-...ht-changes.html Interesting changes, I also thought the current format was way too easy to advance from for the favorites....but this new one isn't much better. Israel's Sport5 is reporting that the quarter finals stage will now be best of 5 instead of the old best of 3 format. List of 2008-2009 Euroleague Participants: Cibona (Croatia) Le Mans, Nanci (France) Alba Berlin (Germany) Panathinaikos, Olympiakos, Panionios (Greece) Maccabi "Electra" Tel-Aviv (Israel) Air Avellino, Montepaschi Siena, AJ Milano, Lottomatica Roma (Italy) Prokom Trefl (Poland) Zalgiris Kaunas (Lithuania) CSKA Moscow (Russia) Partizan (Serbia) Union Olimpija (Slovenia) AXA Barcelona, TAU Ceramica, Unicaja Malaga, DKV Joventut, Real Madrid (Spain) Efes Pilsen, Fenerbahce Ulker (Turkey) -DKV Joventut Badalona won the ULEB CUP and thus return to the Euroleague after a one year absence. -Brose Baskets (Germany), Aris Thessaloniki (Greece), Lietuvos Rytas (Lithuania), Chorale Roanne (France) and VidiVici Bologna (Italy) have lost their spots in the competition. -Newcomers: SLUC Nanci (France)*, ALBA Berlin (Germany), Panionios (Greece)*, Air Avellino (Italy)* *=1st ever Euroleague tournament The Regular Season draw will be held July 8th.
