EuroCup 2027: a New Era

A new unified competition system

After 50 years of competition, the EuroCup competition, the highest international club championship in Europe, has a new future. 

The IWBF Europe Competition Commission has defined a new structure for the known wheelchair basketball European club championship that takes place every year between end of January and beginning of May, culminating with the Champions Cup Final 4. 

The new EuroCup structure has been created following feedback and reactions from clubs and athletes. One of the key and repeated findings of the feedback was the use of the ranking points system to determine the allocation of clubs in the competition, which many felt was not clear, unfair and limited the opportunities for Club to progress between divisions. Together with Finals arrangements that placed higher ranked clubs against much lower ranked clubs, providing disadvantages and unrealistic prospects of advancement for Clubs from lower level rounds of EuroCup. 

After extensive review, the IWBF Europe Competition Commission together with Walter Pfaller, IWBF Europe President, and Enrique Alvarez Orcajo, IWBF Europe Vice-President, have decided that the best approach is a fundamental restructure of the competition schedule with the implementation of  a promotion and relegation process. 

The entire IWBF Europe club competition system will now be unified under a single name: EuroCup. 

Within the EuroCup, there are five levels of competition, creating a complete and connected pyramid. This structure provides a clear pathway for clubs to progress through the ranks based on sporting merit. 

The five levels of competition are: 

• EuroCup Champions (formerly Champions Cup) 

• EuroCup Division 1 (formerly EuroCup 1) 

• EuroCup Division 2 (formerly EuroCup 2) 

• EuroCup Division 3 (formerly EuroCup 3) 

• EuroCup Division 4 (formerly EuroCup 4) 

The new EuroCup structure is based on the principles of a league system, with three groups within each level of competition. This allows for a straightforward promotion and relegation mechanism, where teams finishing first in their group are promoted and teams finishing last are relegated. 

For the first time, all five levels are fully connected through a promotion and relegation pathway, ensuring that every game has competitive significance and that clubs have a transparent route to reach the highest level of European wheelchair basketball. There will no longer be any Finals for divisons below EuroCup Champions. 

What remains unchanged from previous editions is the pathway to the Final Four. In EuroCup Champions the top 2 teams in each will progress to the Quarter Finals from there, competing also against the hosts, the winner teams will reach the Final Four. 

The relegation and promotion system will be implemented in multiple phases in the upcoming years. In 2028,  ‘relegation battle’ will be implemented for the EuroCup Champions tier, which will determine who will remain the current division and who will be relegated to a lower one.  
 

In 2027, teams will still be allocated according to the ranking following EuroCup 2026. For future competitions, 2028 onwards, once the hosts have been allocated the remaining teams will be eligible for a division by relation, promotion or remaining in the division as a result of the previous year finishing position. 

More detailed information will be provided in the coming weeks and months – keep checking the webpage.