Albanian Basketball League

The Albanian Basketball League is the men's professional basketball league in Albania. It was founded in 1946 shortly after the formation of the Albanian Basketball Association and is now divided into two divisions, the Superliga and First Division, consisting of 12 teams each. The team with the most championships is BC Partizani Tirana who have won 33 championships in total, but none since 1996.[1][2]

Albanian Basketball League (ABL)
Current season, competition or edition:
2018–19 Albanian Basketball League
The FSHB logo
SportBasketball
Founded1946
CEOAvni Ponari
DivisionsSuperliga & First Division
No. of teams11
Country Albania
Continent FIBA Europe (Europe)
Most recent
champion(s)		Goga Basket (1st title)
Most titlesPartizani
(33 titles)
TV partner(s)RTSH
Level on pyramid1st & 2nd
Related
competitions		Albanian Cup
Albanian Supercup

History

The Albanian Basketball League is the one of the oldest continuing basketball competitions in the region of the Balkans, having started in 1946. The league was formed less than two years after the Communist Party of Albania gained control of the country, and the sport gradually grew in popularity over the years before experiencing a rapid rise in popularity in the 1970s, leading to most cities and towns in Albania forming their own basketball clubs and building basketball grounds. Following the fall of communism in 1991 many basketball clubs were forced to fold due to lack of any investment, which led to the decline in the popularity of the sport as a whole in the country. However, since 1993 there has been some re-establishment of the folded teams as private investment along with some state funded has allowed teams to continue functioning.

Competition

The Albanian Basketball League consists of 12 teams, grouped evenly into two divisions, the Superliga and First Division. As each group contains 6 teams, they play each other four times in two separate phases during the regular season, once at home and once away in each phase. This means each team plays 20 games each during the regular season. A win in the regular season is worth two points and a loss is worth one point. At the end of the regular season the bottom two sides miss out on the play-offs, while the bottom club gets relegated from the Superliga to the First Division, the fifth placed side has to compete for a place in the Superliga against the second ranked team in the First Division.

Following the end of the regular season, the top four teams qualify for he play-offs, where the team which finished first plays the team which finished fourth while the second and third ranked teams play against each other. A winner is decided in the play-offs once a team has reached two victories, and they take it in turns to play at home until the two victories are reached. The finals is played between the two winners of the Superliga play-offs, with each team taking it in turns to play at home until one side has reached three victories.

Current teams

Superliga
Club Location Founded Colours Arena Capacity
Goga Durrës
2015
         
 Dhimitraq Goga Sports Palace
700
Partizani Tirana
1946
         
 Asllan Rusi Sports Palace
4,000
Kamza Kamëz
1962
         
 Bathore Sports Hall
500
Teuta Durrës
1925
         
 Ramazan Njala Sports Palace
1,663
Tirana Tirana
1946
         
 Farie Hoti Sports Palace
1,200
Vllaznia Shkodër
1919
         
 Qazim Dërvishi Sports Palace
1,101

First Division
Club Location Founded Colours Arena Capacity
Apolonia Fier
1925
         
 Fier Sports Palace
680
Eagles Tirana Farie Hoti Sports Palace
1,200
Elbasani Elbasan Tomorr Sinani Sports Palace
2,130
Flamurtari Vlorë
1924
         
 Flamurtari Sports Palace
2,040
Invaders Tirana Asllan Rusi Sports Palace
4,000
Skënderbeu Korçë Tamara Nikolla Sports Palace
2,400

Winners
Key
(*)
The team wins its 10th title
(**)
The team wins its 20th title
(***)
The team wins its 30th title
Season Champion Runner-up Score
2003 Valbona Tirana 3–0
2004 Valbona
2005 Valbona
2006 Valbona Vllaznia 3–0
2007 Valbona Tirana 3–2
2008 Tirana
2009 Tirana
2010 Tirana Studenti 3–2
2011 Tirana UAT 3–0
2012 Tirana Kamza 3–0
2013 Kamza Vllaznia 3–0
2014 Vllaznia Tirana 3–0
2015 Vllaznia Tirana 3–0
2016 Vllaznia Teuta 3–1
2017 Tirana Vllaznia 3–0
2018 Tirana (**) Teuta 3–2
2019 BC Goga Basket Teuta 3–2

All–time champions
Team Titles Years Won
Partizani33 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1996
Tirana20 1946, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1957, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1971, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2017, 2018
Vllaznia9 1967, 1990, 1993, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2014, 2015, 2016
Kamza*6 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2013
Teuta2 1947, 1955
BC Adelin Pogradec1 1994
Dinamo1 1995
BC Goga Basket1 2019
  • BC Kamza Basket won the title 5 times between 2003-2007 as BC Valbona.

References
  1. "Historia e kampioneve shqiptare meshkuj". Archived from the original on 2011-12-11. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  2. Shkodra Sport

See also
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