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.

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

First Division

Winners

SeasonChampion
194617 Nëntori
1947Ylli i Kuq Durrës
194817 Nëntori
194917 Nëntori
195017 Nëntori
1951Partizani
1952Partizani
1953Partizani
1954Partizani
1955Puna Durrës
1956Partizani
1957Tirana
1958Partizani
1959Partizani

SeasonChampion
1960Partizani
196117 Nëntori
196217 Nëntori
196317 Nëntori
1964Partizani
196517 Nëntori
1967Vllaznia
1968Partizani
1969Partizani
1970Partizani
197117 Nëntori
1972Partizani
1973Partizani
1974Partizani

SeasonChampion
1975Partizani
1976Partizani
1977Partizani
1978Partizani
1979Partizani
1980Partizani
1981Partizani
1982Partizani
1983Partizani
1984Partizani
1985Partizani
1986Partizani
1987Partizani
1988Partizani

SeasonChampion
1989Partizani
1990Vllaznia
1991Partizani
1992Partizani
1993Vllaznia
1994Pogradeci
1995Dinamo
1996Partizani
1997Vllaznia
1998Vllaznia
1999Tirana
2000Vllaznia
2001Tirana
2002Tirana

SeasonChampionRunner-upScore
2003ValbonaTirana3–0
2004Valbona
2005Valbona
2006ValbonaVllaznia3–0
2007ValbonaTirana3–2
2008Tirana
2009Tirana
2010TiranaStudenti3–2
2011TiranaUAT3–0
2012TiranaKamza3–0
2013KamzaVllaznia3–0
2014VllazniaTirana3–0
2015VllazniaTirana3–0
2016VllazniaTeuta3–1
2017TiranaVllaznia3–0
2018Tirana Teuta3–2
2019BC Goga BasketTeuta3–2

All–time champions