Bratislava has been announced as the host of the ENBL Final Four. Far away from the elite of Euroleague or even the Basketball Champions League, Emmet Ryan writes that this competition can play an important role in the growth of the game.
The reactions from Bamberg fans when they were announced as participants in this season’s ENBL were variations of “the what?” That’s somewhat understandable. It’s a fledgling competition in a crowded pan-European structure. Yet there is a purpose to this competition, one that can help bridge the gaps in basketball across the continent.
Introduce the ENBL as a fast-growing regional competition that’s quietly filling a crucial gap in European basketball. Position it not as a rival to Euroleague or BCL, but as a support system—offering structure, visibility, and opportunity for clubs and players in underserved markets.
A home for those that need one
There’s no lack of ambition in basketball across Europe. What that means at various levels however is another matter entirely. Look at the clubs in this year’s ENBL Final Four. There’s Inter Bratislava, currently second in the Slovak league. They are joined by Newcastle Eagles, fourth in Super League Basketball, CSO Voluntari, who hold the same spot in Romania, and Dziki Warsaw, who are ninth in Poland.
All of them, to varying degrees, contend in their domestic leagues but they are not favourites. They each hold ambition and want to give their fans something creative to hold onto. The mix of clubs within the competition may seem novel but they are peers seeking more quality games.
The reactions from Dziki Warsaw fans watching back home as their side clinched a place in the Final Four was enrapturing. It was akin to what you’d expect from bigger clubs in bigger competitions. Here, on a European stage if not the biggest of them, they were succeeding.
Another avenue for exposure
Getting better at sport, whether as a team or individual, isn’t rocket science. The higher quality opposition you play against, the more you improve. In basketball it’s no different. The ENBL is providing an opportunity for the clubs and players involved to get more high quality games in season.
That benefits development down the chain. National leagues and the clubs themselves benefit from having more clubs raising their standards. The ability to progress is also visible. Anwil Włocławek won the first competition in 2022. Anwil followed up that up a year later by winning the FIBA Europe Cup.
It’s reminiscent of how Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest developed in the 1970s. The path to an English title and two European Cups began with an Anglo-Scottish cup win. That relatively minor trophy gave his players what Clough called a taste for the bubbly. Winning something makes you thirsty to win more.
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Expanding the Map
Bratislava is not a basketball hotbed. Slovakia’s national team, for context, has never qualified for EuroBasket. Yet here’s a team from that nation hosting the semi finals and final of a European competition. Not only that, it’s unbeaten.
This access to regular cross-border games, with teams from relative basketball wastelands such as Norway and Denmark, helps raise the game in these nations. It benefits all of Europe if more of Europe has reason to care about the game beyond their own domestic borders.
Many fans in these nations are getting their first tastes of cross-border competitive play. The short enough season, with only four road trips over the season prior to the playoffs, also makes it more affordable to compete. Clubs from nations like Ireland, Luxembourg, Sweden, and Iceland can seriously consider it as a medium-term goal to enter. That in turn makes more fans in these nations aware of pan-European basketball and their interest in the higher level tournaments grows.
Newcastle Eagles, CSU Voluntari, Dziki Warsaw, and Inter Bratislava make up the wonderfully diverse range of competitors in the ENBL Final Four.
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It is a sign of what Europe needs
The hegemony at the top of European basketball, at least on a national league level, can’t be ignored. The worst thing any sports team can do is deny its supporters hope. Yet in most of the continent’s top leagues, there isn’t much of that for the bulk of the teams on the ladder.
The FIBA Europe Cup has done an exemplary job in giving fans of the clubs involved something tangible to care about. The ENBL is doing likewise. More competitions of this nature on a regional basis should be encouraged.
Think of what Cyprus in the Mediterranean could gain from a competition aimed at them. What about teams that aren’t Falco Szombathely in Hungary? Portuguese clubs too, beyond the fine work by Benfica. There are avenues here to expand the horizons of basketball fans down the levels of the sport. These leagues will never contend with Euroleague but that’s not the point.
The likes of the ENBL can fuel hope. That is the most valuable resource in the business of sport. You give fans that, they will lap it up. Embracing basketball’s working and middle classes can only help the sport. They are the very foundation required for the game’s elite to even matter.
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