European men's basketball tournament for national teams
This article is about the men's basketball tournament. For the basketball news website, seeEurobasket.com. For the women's tournament, seeEuroBasket Women.
EuroBasket, also commonly called theEuropean Basketball Championship, is the main internationalbasketball competition for the senior men's national teams of primarily European countries. It is held every four years and organised byFIBA Europe, the European zone ofFIBA, the International Basketball Federation.
The competition was first held in1935. The formerSoviet Union holds the record for most gold medals with 14. The tournament is generally held in August or September, in the offseason of major club competitions. The current champion isGermany, who won the2025 title.
The first championships was held three years after the establishment of FIBA, in1935. Switzerland was chosen as the host country, and ten countries joined. Only one qualifying match was played between Portugal and Spain. With a complicated formula, the final would seeLatvia as champions. According to the rule at the time, the winner had to hold the following games. The following two tournaments would be won byLithuania and would see the introduction ofEgypt who would compete in EuroBasket until 1953 winning one championship at home in1949 along the way.[1] The 1941 edition of the tournament was scheduled be held in Lithuania as well, but was cancelled due toWWII.[2]
Soviet dominance
After the1946 edition saw the first jump shot performed by Italian playerGiuseppe Stefanini, the following edition would see theSoviet Union compete in their first edition in the1947 edition and would see the Soviets win the first of eleven out of the next thirteen European championships.[3] During the 50s, the Soviet Union won four of the five competitions held during the decade with the only tournament that they did not win being the1955 edition. This was won byHungary as they finished top while the Soviets finished in third place. It was also during that edition that the thirty-second shot clock was introduced, which changed the style of basketball.[4]
The Soviets would win all championships of the 60s. They had a fifty-five game winning streak which would be broken byYugoslavia in1969. The 1960s would see also a change in how the competition was viewed and run withFIBA putting a limit on the number of countries that entered to 16 with qualifiers being the way to bring them down to that number as it first appeared in1963. Thefollowing edition would see the competition not be held in one city withTbilisi joining Moscow in hosting games and in1967 the first modern games were held, because the games were televised and international media were present.[5]
Rise of Yugoslavia
The 1970s were the competition between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. During the decade Yugoslavia won three gold medals and the Soviet Union taking out the remaining two. After the Soviets won1971, the1973 edition would finally see Yugoslavia win their first championship afterSpain defeated the Soviets in the semi-finals to qualify for their first final since the first edition way back in 1935. Yugoslavia would finally have a chance to defeat the Soviets as at home, they would get the chance to defeat them and they did as they won by six points to take home1975 edition. After following that up in1977, the Soviets would get their revenge in the final round atEuroBasket 1979 when they defeated them 96–77 to qualify through to the final where they would defeatIsrael who shocked the basketball world as they defeated Yugoslavia in the opening round by a point.[6]
Brewing under the Soviets and Yugoslavs,Western Europe was starting to appear with the 1980s seeing the change happen. In1983, the Western side of Europe tasted success withItaly defeatingSpain in the final to record their first of two titles. An important development happened in thefollowing edition which was held in Germany. That edition saw the first three-point arc being used.
New winners emerge and Spanish dominance
Greece would win the next edition in1987 at home after remarkable victory over heavily favoredSoviet Union, with a 103–101 score in a gripping final decided inovertime. At the1989 edition, Greece beat the Soviet team again in the semifinals with a one-point margin but then lost to hosts Yugoslavia in the final.[7]EuroBasket 1991 was the first EuroBasket tournament in which currently activeNBA players, that had also already played in an official NBA regular season game were allowed to participate. It would also be the first edition where the Soviets weren't entered into the competition, as the USSR didn't qualify for the main tournament and afterwards collapsed. Yugoslavia would take the title, but afterwards war would split the country up withJure Zdovc being a "casualty" afterSlovenia declared independence, two days into the tournament.1993 saw a shock winner, withGermany taking the championship at home with a one-point victory overRussia. After being suspended in 1993,FR Yugoslavia came back and took the trophy after defeating Lithuania who was making its first appearance, since it had been a Soviet Republic. But politics came into play with the crowd protesting "Lithuania is the champions", while the Croatian team who had defeated Greece for bronze step down from the podium in protest of the war that was happening at the time.[8][9] Nevertheless,FR Yugoslavia managed to repeat their success in1997 after victory overItaly in the final match.
Italy managed to win the last title of the 20th century, defeatingSpain in the1999 final. In2001,FR Yugoslavia regained European title but it was their last victory at the EuroBasket. In2003,Lithuania defeated Spain in the final match and won their first European trophy since1939. In2005,Greece repeated success of1987 after beatingGermany in the final match.
2007 saw a shock winner, withRussia taking their first EuroBasket title since the dissolution of the Soviet Union with a one-point victory over heavily favored Spanish hosts inMadrid. However, the next tournaments were dominated bySpain who finally gained their maiden European title in2009 and then won 3 of 5 next editions. In 2013,France won their first European title. In 2017,Slovenia won the trophy, becoming the 14th country to win the EuroBasket. But in general, the first decades of the 21st century have been characterized by the dominance of Spanish team who has reached at least the semifinals of the 11 last tournaments, obtaining at these editions a total of four gold, three silver and three bronze medals, including the current title of2022.
Qualification
24 European teams take part in the final competition. The qualification format that existed until the2011 EuroBasket permitted 16 teams to compete. Eight spots were determined by the host nation and the top seven finishers of the previous EuroBasket. The remaining Division A teams compete in a qualification tournament. There, they were divided into four groups. Each group played a double round-robin. The top team in each group qualified for EuroBasket. The best three of the four runners-up also qualified.
Of the ten teams that did not qualify in the qualification tournament, the six best got another chance in the additional qualification round. The remaining four competed in a relegation round, with two being sent to Division B for the next qualification cycle (and replaced by the two best teams from Division B).
The final spot was determined by the additional qualifying round. The six teams were divided into two groups of three, with each group playing a double round-robin. The top team in each group played in the final against the other group's top team; the winner of that game received the final EuroBasket qualification spot.
In 2015, thenational team ofIceland became the smallest nation to ever qualify for a EuroBasket final stage at the population of around 330.000 people. The team was led by the formerDallas Maverick,Jón Arnór Stefánsson followed by a great performance which drove them through the qualifiers. In 2017, Iceland made back to back qualification to a EuroBasket final stage, then led by the youngMartin Hermannsson.
Competition format
EuroBasket has used a number of different formats, ranging from the simple round-robin used in 1939, to a three-stage tournament, and now a two-stage tournament that is currently in use.
The current format begins with a preliminary round. The twenty-four qualified teams are placed into four groups of six, and each group plays around-robin tournament. The top four teams in each group (16 overall) advance to the knockout stage. The knockout stage is a 16-teamsingle-elimination tournament, with a bronze medal game for semi-final losers and classification games for the quarterfinal losers to determine fifth to eighth places.
The medal table below lists the national teams according to the respective table published by FIBA.[10] Countries initalics no longer compete at the EuroBasket.
According to FIBA, Yugoslavia competed until 2001.[14]
Debut of teams
A total of 46 national teams have appeared in at least one FIBA EuroBasket in the history of the tournament through the2025 competition. Each successive EuroBasket has had at least one team appearing for the first time. Countries competing in their first EuroBasket are listed below by year.
^abThe country was previously a FIBA member under the name ofthe former Yugoslav Republic (FYR) of Macedonia due to the now-resolvedMacedonia naming dispute.
^Egypt took part until they return to Africa for theAfroBasket
^TheSoviet Union qualified nine times prior tobeing dissolved in 1991. The 15 nations that were formerSoviet Republics now compete separately. FIBA does not consider any of these nations as the successor team of the Soviet Union.
^TheSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1950–1990) qualified ten times under the nameYugoslavia prior to itsbreakup by the secession of many of its constituent republics in 1992. TheFederal Republic of Yugoslavia qualified twice in 1998 and 2002 asYugoslavia and in 2006 asSerbia and Montenegro after a name change in 2003.FR Yugoslavia andSerbia and Montenegro are considered the predecessors of the currentSerbia team by FIBA; the latter competed for the first time asSerbia in the 2010 FIBA World Championship. These teams along with the other national teams which resulted from the breakup of the originalYugoslavia (Croatia,Slovenia,Bosnia-Herzegovina andNorth Macedonia) are considered distinct entities from the Yugoslavia team of 1930–1990.Montenegro now also compete separately after independence in 2006.
^Lebanon took part until they return to Asia for theFIBA Asia Cup
^Syria took part until they return to Asia theFIBA Asia Cup