FIBA Intercontinental Cup

FIBA Intercontinental Cup

Organising body	FIBA
Founded	1965; 59 years ago (1965)
First season	1965
Confederation	6 regions: FIBA Americas (Central and South America) FIBA Europe (Europe) FIBA Africa (Africa) FIBA Asia (Asia) FIBA Oceania (Oceania) NBA G League (North America)
Number of teams	6
Level on pyramid	1
Current champions	Unicaja (1st title) (2024)
Most championships	Real Madrid (5 titles)
Website	intercontinentalcup.basketball
2024 FIBA Intercontinental Cup

The FIBA Intercontinental Cup, previously known to as the FIBA World Cup for Champion Clubs and the FIBA Club World Cup, is an annual professional basketball club competition organized by FIBA. The competition features the champions of each region's continental champion, as well as one representative from the NBA G League.

Historically, its purpose has been to gather the premier basketball clubs from each of the world's geographical zones, and to officially decide the best basketball club of the world, which is officially crowned as the world club champion. The World Cup for Clubs has been contended mainly by the champions of the continents and/or world geographical regions that are of the highest basketball levels.

Instead of the National Basketball Association (NBA) champions, which is widely considered the most prestigious basketball league in the world, the North American spot is usually allocated to the champions of the NBA's developmental league, the G League. In place of the EuroLeague, which has long been considered Europe's most prestigious club competition, FIBA Europe sends the champions of their main club competition, the Basketball Champions League (BCL).

The champions of the Basketball Africa League (BAL), the Basketball Champions League Asia and National Basketball League (NBL) also receive a place in the tournament.^[1][2][3]

The FIBA Intercontinental Cup competition was originally organized between the years 1966 and 1987. The tournament had its origins with a friendly test game in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1965. The test game was contested by the winners of the South American Championship of Champions Clubs, the Brazilian club S.C. Corinthians Paulista, and the FIBA European Champions Cup (now the EuroLeague) champions, the Spanish club Real Madrid. S.C. Corinthians Paulista won the test game, by a score of 118 to 109. After the success of the test tournament, the first official tournament took place in the year 1966.^[4]

In 1973, the competition adopted the name FIBA Intercontinental Cup William Jones, to honour the secretary general of FIBA, William Jones. FIBA tried to rebirth the competition in 1996, by reorganizing the Intercontinental Cup into a best-of-three playoff tournament between the winners of the Euroleague and the winners of the FIBA South American League (the champions of South America). After that tournament, however, the competition was not held until the 2013 edition.

In August 2013, an agreement reached between Euroleague Basketball Company, FIBA Americas, and FIBA World, allowed for the World Cup for Champion Clubs to be relaunched, and to be played between the Euroleague champion and the FIBA Americas League champion.^[5][6]

The FIBA Intercontinental Cup unofficially began with the friendly competition of the 1965 FIBA Intercontinental Cup Test in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1965. The game was played by the defending champions of the South American Club Championship, S.C. Corinthians Paulista, and the defending champions of the FIBA European Champions Cup (EuroLeague), Real Madrid. It was held at the Ginásio Poliesportivo Parque São Jorge. Corinthians won the game 118 to 109, with Wlamir Marques of S.C. Corinthians scoring 40 points in the game.^[7] Due to the test tournament's great success (attendance for the game was 10,000),^[8] the FIBA Intercontinental Cup was made an official annual tournament by FIBA. The first official FIBA Intercontinental Cup tournament was then held the following year.^[9]

In 1972, FIBA held a 4 team tournament, featuring the Soviet Union national basketball team, the Polish national basketball team, the Brazilian national basketball team, and the NABL All-Stars Team, which participated in the place of Team USA. Although this tournament is not a part of the actual Club World Cup, it is still listed in the event's history as a special version of the tournament and counts as one of the editions, while the actual club competition was on hiatus between the years of 1970 and 1973.^[10]

In 2016, the tournament again changed format, with the EuroLeague champions no longer being allowed to compete in the tournament due to the EuroLeague's dispute with FIBA. In place of the EuroLeague champions, FIBA Europe began to send the champions of their club competition, originally the FIBA Europe Cup and later the FIBA Champions League, instead.^[11][12] For the 2019 tournament, FIBA increased the competition's number of teams to four, by adding the NBA G League's champions, and also a tournament host club. The tournament was also reconfigured into a final four format.^[13]

FIBA has also considered plans to expand the tournament at some point in the future, with plans to add the champion teams from the FIBA AfroLeague, the FIBA Asia Champions Cup, the Australian NBL, and possibly the NBA.^[14][15]

In the 2022 tournament, the league expanded to include the winner of the Basketball Africa League (BAL).^[16] From the 2023 tournament, the winners of the FIBA Asia Champions Cup will also be included in the tournament.^[17]

In March 2023, the tournament format received an overhaul. The event was changed from February to September so that it adapts more efficiently to the domestic and continental leagues' calendar and the schedule of international players, and to better accommodate participating clubs.^[18]

FIBA also signed a three-year deal partnership with Sport Singapore to hold the competition in the Singapore Sports Hub for three years in a row (until 2025). This makes it the first time in the Intercontinental Cup's history that the event will be held in Asia. Additionally, the tournament was expanded to six teams as an Asian representative was added. For the 2023 edition a team from the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) was chosen by FIBA to participate.^[18]

The 2024 season will feature a team from Oceania for the first time, as the winners of Australia and New Zealand's National Basketball League (NBL) earn direct qualification.^[3] The Tasmania JackJumpers are the first representative in tournament history.^[3]

• FIBA Intercontinental Cup (or FIBA World Cup for Champion Clubs): (1966–1980)
• FIBA Club World Cup: (1981)
• FIBA Intercontinental Cup (or FIBA World Cup for Champion Clubs): (1982–1984)
• FIBA Club World Cup: (1985–1987)
• FIBA Intercontinental Cup (or FIBA World Cup for Champion Clubs): (2013–present)
  • Since 1973, the tournament has also been named in Honor of Renato William Jones, so the tournament's full official names would be either FIBA Intercontinental Cup "William Jones", or FIBA Club World Cup "William Jones".
  • The tournament is also referred to as the FIBA Intercontinental Cup of Clubs, in order to avoid confusion with the 1972 FIBA Intercontinental Cup of National Teams.

From the 2013 edition of the tournament through to the 2015 edition, the competition was played in either an aggregate score two-legged series, or in a single-game final format between two teams, that determined the official club world champions. Those two teams were the champions of Europe's most prestigious competition, the EuroLeague, and the champions of Latin America's premier competition, the FIBA Americas League.

For the 2016 edition and 2017 edition, the champions of the FIBA Americas League played against the champions of FIBA Europe's main club competition (now second-tier), FIBA Europe Cup (2016) and FIBA Europe's new top competition, the Basketball Champions League (2017), as EuroLeague clubs were no longer allowed to participate by FIBA due to its dispute with Euroleague Basketball.^[19][20]

For the 2019 edition of the tournament, FIBA expanded the competition to include the NBA G League's champions and a tournament host club. Thus, the tournament format was also changed to a final four format involving four teams.^[21]

Real Madrid from Spain holds the record for most victories, with a total of five titles.

Edition	Year	Hosts	Champions	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place	Result(s) / Note(s)	Number of teams
–	1965[a] Details	São Paulo	Corinthians	Real Madrid	N/A	N/A	118–109 Unofficial test tournament	2
1	1966 Details	Madrid	Ignis Varese	Corinthians	Real Madrid	Chicago Jamaco Saints	Final: 66–59 3rd place game: 112–96	4
2	1967 Details	Italy (3 cities)	Akron Goodyear Wingfoots	Ignis Varese	Simmenthal Milano	Corinthians	Final: 78–72 3rd place game: 90–89	5
3	1968 Details	Philadelphia	Akron Goodyear Wingfoots	Real Madrid	Simmenthal Milano	Botafogo	Final: 105–73 3rd place game: 82–54	4
4	1969 Details	Macon	Akron Goodyear Wingfoots	Spartak ZJŠ Brno	Sírio	Real Madrid	Final: 84–71 3rd place game: 72–60	5
5	1970 Details	Varese	Ignis Varese	Real Madrid	Corinthians	Slavia VŠ Praha	Five team league stage	5
6	1972[b] Details	São Paulo	NABL All-Stars	Soviet Union	Brazil	Poland	Four team league stage	5
7	1973 Details	São Paulo	Ignis Varese	Sírio	Vaqueros de Bayamón	Jugoplastika	Five team league stage	5
8	1974 Details	Mexico City	Maryland Terrapins	Ignis Varese	Vila Nova	Real Madrid	Six team league stage	6
9	1975 Details	Italy (2 cities)	Birra Forst Cantù	Amazonas Franca	Real Madrid	Penn Quakers	Six team league stage	6
10	1976 Details	Buenos Aires	Real Madrid	Mobilgirgi Varese	Obras Sanitarias	Amazonas Franca	Six team league stage	6
11	1977 Details	Madrid	Real Madrid	Mobilgirgi Varese	Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv	Atlética Francana	Six team league stage	6
12	1978 Details	Buenos Aires	Real Madrid	Obras Sanitarias	Sírio	Mobilgirgi Varese	Five team league stage	5
13	1979 Details	São Paulo	Sírio	Bosna	Emerson Varese	Piratas de Quebradillas	Five team league stage	5
14	1980 Details	Sarajevo	Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv	Atlética Francana	Bosna	Real Madrid	Five team league stage	5
15	1981 Details	São Paulo	Real Madrid	Sírio	Clemson Tigers	Atlética Francana	Final: 109–83 3rd place game: 79–73	10
16	1982 Details	Netherlands (3 cities)	Ford Cantù	Nashua EBBC	Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv	Air Force Falcons	Six team league stage	6
17	1983 Details	Buenos Aires	Obras Sanitarias	Jollycolombani Cantù	Peñarol	Monte Líbano	Six team league stage	6
18	1984 Details	São Paulo	Banco di Roma	Obras Sanitarias	Sírio	FC Barcelona	Five team league stage	5
19	1985 Details	Spain (2 cities)	FC Barcelona	Monte Líbano	Cibona	San Andrés	Final: 93–89 3rd place game: 109–82	10
20	1986 Details	Argentina (2 cities)	Žalgiris	Ferro Carril Oeste	Cibona	Corinthians	Final: 84–78 3rd place game: 119–96	8
21	1987 Details	Milan	Tracer Milano	FC Barcelona	Cibona	Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv	Final: 100–84 3rd place game: 106–96	8
	1988–1995		Competition inactive
22	1996 Details[22]	Away, home and home	Panathinaikos	Olimpia	N/A	N/A	2–1 83–89 (away) / 83–78 (home) / 101–76 (home)	2
	1997–2012		Competition inactive
23	2013 Details	Home and away	Olympiacos	Pinheiros Sky	N/A	N/A	167–139 81–70 / 86–69	2
24	2014 Details	Home and away	Flamengo	Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv	N/A	N/A	156–146 66–69 / 90–77	2
25	2015 Details	Home and away	Real Madrid	Bauru	N/A	N/A	181–170 90–91 / 91–79	2
26	2016 Details	Frankfurt	Guaros de Lara	Fraport Skyliners	N/A	N/A	74–69	2
27	2017 Details	Tenerife	Iberostar Tenerife	Guaros de Lara	N/A	N/A	76–71	2
28	2019 Details	Rio de Janeiro	AEK	Flamengo	San Lorenzo	Austin Spurs	Final: 86–70 3rd place game: 77–59	4
29	2020 Details	Tenerife	Iberostar Tenerife	Virtus Segafredo Bologna	San Lorenzo	Rio Grande Valley Vipers	Final: 80–72 3rd place game: 96–90	4
30	2021 Details	Buenos Aires	San Pablo Burgos	Quimsa	N/A	N/A	Final: 82–73	2
31	2022 Details	Cairo	Flamengo	San Pablo Burgos	Lakeland Magic	Zamalek	Final: 75–62 3rd place game: 113–78	4
32	2023 (I) Details	Tenerife	Lenovo Tenerife	São Paulo	Rio Grande Valley Vipers	US Monastir	Final: 89–67 3rd place game: 107–84	4
33	2023 (II) Details	Singapore	Sesi Franca	Telekom Baskets Bonn	Zhejiang Golden Bulls	Al Ahly	Final: 70–69 3rd place game: 81–74	6
34	2024 Details	Singapore	Unicaja	NBA G League United	Tasmania JackJumpers	Al Riyadi	Final: 75–60 3rd place game: 80–75	6
35	2025	Singapore	Future event					6

Club	Titles	Runners-up	Seasons won	Seasons runner-up
Real Madrid	5	2	1976, 1977, 1978, 1981, 2015	1968, 1970
Varese	3	4	1966, 1970, 1973	1967, 1974, 1976, 1977
Akron Wingfoots	3	0	1967, 1968, 1969	—
Canarias	3	0	2017, 2020, 2023 (I)	—
Cantù	2	1	1975, 1982	1983
Flamengo	2	1	2014, 2022	2019
Sírio	1	2	1979	1973, 1981
Obras Sanitarias	1	2	1983	1978, 1984
Franca	1	2	2023 (II)	1975, 1980
Maccabi Tel Aviv	1	1	1980	2014
FC Barcelona	1	1	1985	1987
Guaros de Lara	1	1	2016	2017
San Pablo Burgos	1	1	2021	2022
Maryland Terrapins	1	0	1974	—
Virtus Roma	1	0	1984	—
Žalgiris	1	0	1986	—
Olimpia Milano	1	0	1987	—
Panathinaikos	1	0	1996	—
Olympiacos	1	0	2013	—
AEK	1	0	2019	—
Unicaja Málaga	1	0	2024	—
Corinthians	0	1	—	1966
Brno	0	1	—	1969
Bosna	0	1	—	1979
EBBC	0	1	—	1982
Monte Líbano	0	1	—	1985
Ferro Carril Oeste	0	1	—	1986
Olimpia	0	1	—	1996
Pinheiros	0	1	—	2013
Bauru	0	1	—	2015
Skyliners Frankfurt	0	1	—	2016
Virtus Bologna	0	1	—	2020
Quimsa	0	1	—	2021
São Paulo	0	1	—	2023 (I)
Baskets Bonn	0	1	—	2023 (II)
NBA G League United	0	1	—	2024

• The 1965 test tournament and the 1972 tournament for national teams are not included.

Rank	Country	League(s)	Title(s)	Runner(s)-up
1	Spain	Primera División / ACB	11	4
2	Italy	LBA	7	6
3	Brazil	CBB / NBB	4	10
4	United States	NABL – 3	4	–
		NCAA Division I – 1		–
		NBA G League	–	1
5	Greece	GBL	3	–
6	Argentina	CAC / LNB	1	5
7	Israel	BSL	1	1
	Venezuela	LPB	1	1
9	Soviet Union	Premier League	1	–
10	Germany	BBL	–	2
11	Czechoslovakia	CSBL	–	1
	Netherlands	DBL	–	1
	Yugoslavia	FFL	–	1
Total			33	33

• The 1965 test tournament and the 1972 tournament for national teams are not included.

Rank	Confederation	Winners	Runners-up
1	FIBA Europe	23	16
2	FIBA Americas	6	16
3	NABL	3	0
4	NBA G League	0	1

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Spain	11	4	2	17
2	Italy	7	6	3	16
3	Brazil	4	10	5	19
4	United States	4	1	3	8
5	Greece	3	0	0	3
6	Argentina	1	5	3	9
7	Israel	1	1	2	4
8	Venezuela	1	1	0	2
9	Soviet Union	1	0	0	1
10	Germany	0	2	0	2
11	Yugoslavia	0	1	4	5
12	Czechoslovakia	0	1	0	1
	Netherlands	0	1	0	1
14	Australia	0	0	1	1
	China	0	0	1	1
	Puerto Rico	0	0	1	1
	Uruguay	0	0	1	1
Totals (17 entries)		33	33	26	92

• The 1965 test tournament and the 1972 tournament for national teams are not included.

Wlamir Marques holds the record for most points scored in a single game, when he scored 51 points in the 1965 test tournament. Dražen Petrović was top scorer of the tournament three times, a record. The players' nationalities in the following table are shown by national team.^[23][24]

Year	Name(s)	Club(s)	Points	Ref.
1965[a]	Wlamir Marques	Corinthians	51	[25][26]
1966	Clifford Luyk	Real Madrid	38	[27][28]
1967	Steve Chubin	Simmental Milano	79	[29][30]
1968	Miles Aiken	Real Madrid	53	[31][32]
1969	Jan Bobrovský	Spartak ZJŠ Brno		[33][34]
1970	Jiří Zídek Sr.	Slavia VŠ Praha	125	[35][36]
1972[b]	Robertão	Brazil		[37]
1973	Bob Morse	Ignis Varese	103	[38][39]
1974	Walt Szczerbiak	Real Madrid		[40][41]
1975	Wayne Brabender	Real Madrid		[42][43]
1976	Bob Morse	Ignis Varese	90	[44][45]
1977	Wayne Brabender Bruce Campbell	Real Madrid Providence Friars	141	[46][47]
1978	Walt Szczerbiak	Real Madrid	114	[48][49]
1979	Oscar Schmidt	Sírio	138	[50][51][52]
1980	Miki Berkovich	Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv	94	[53][54]
1981	Mirza Delibašić	Real Madrid	176	[55][56]
1982	David Lawrence	Nashua EBBC	92	[57][58]
1983	Antonello Riva	Jollycolombani Cantù	158	[59][60]
1984	San Epifanio	FC Barcelona	101	[61][62]
1985	Dražen Petrović	Cibona Zagreb	141	[63][64]
1986	Dražen Petrović	Cibona Zagreb	120	[65][66][67]
1987	Dražen Petrović	Cibona Zagreb	175	[68][69]
1996	Jorge Racca	Olimpia	74	[70]
2013	Shamell Stallworth	Pinheiros Sky	53	[71][72][73]
2014	Jeremy Pargo	Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv	49	[74][75]
2015	Rafael Hettsheimeir	Bauru	44	[76][77]
2016	Zach Graham	Guaros de Lara	19	[78][79][80]
2017	Mario Little	Guaros de Lara	23	[81][82][83][84]
2019	Dar Tucker	San Lorenzo	37	[85]
2020	Dar Tucker	San Lorenzo	38	[86]
2021	Brandon Robinson	Quimsa	25	[87]
2022	Luke Martínez	Flamengo	44	[88]
2023 (I)	Jarrett Culver	Rio Grande Valley Vipers	45
2023 (II)	Lucas Dias	Sesi Franca	54	[89]
2024	Elmedin Kikanović	Al Riyadi	50

After each tournament, FIBA awards the Most valuable player award to the player that is deemed the most important to his team during the Intercontinental Cup. The first MVP award was given to Walt Szczerbiak Sr. of Real Madrid after he guided them to the 1977 title. The last winner is Dylan Osetkowski of Unicaja in 2024.

All four games are streamed through FIBA's YouTube channel for free in the USA and the unsold markets with highlights available in all territories.^[90] The tournament is also streamed for free through FIBA-DAZN's subscription streaming service Courtside 1891.

Nation(s)	Broadcaster
Argentina	TNT Sports
Balkan countries  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Croatia  Kosovo  Montenegro  North Macedonia  Serbia  Slovenia	Arena Sport
Canada	DAZN
Italy
Japan
Spain
Greece	Cosmote Sport
Singapore	meWatch

• McDonald's Championship

• History rosters 1966-87
• Sirio 1979 edition

• FIBA official website
• FIBA Intercontinental Cup official website
• FIBA Intercontinental Cup History
• Basquetepinheirense FIBA World Cup (in Portuguese)
• FIBA World Cup of Clubs (in Portuguese)