PAOK will be participating the regular season of the Basketball Champions League for the 4th season in a row. Also, the 2019-2020 season is going to be the 7th consecutive one when PAOK will be participating a European Competition.
PAOK, together with 23 more teams, is included in the 24 team group that participate the regular season of 2019-2020, according to the statement made by the Basketball Champions League. These 24 teams are entering the competition draw, that will be held on July 4, at the House of Basketball at the FIBA HQ in Geneva, while the remaining 8 teams of the regular season will come from the qualification rounds.
Qualification rounds will commence on September 17, 2019, while the BCL regular season is scheduled to begin on October 8, 2019. This is the date that PAOK when PAOK will begin its European course for the next season.
There is a significant differentiation in the way the competition is going to be held, just like noted in the relevant BCL announcement, since the four top teams of each of the four groups are going to be making the playoffs, but the path that leads to the Final Four is different. The pairs that are going to emerge from the draw that will originally lead to the competition’s top “8” and then to the Final Four, will be decided in a best of three format and not by a home and a road game. So from now on, the point difference has no bearing to the who qualifies, but rather victories do and it takes two (2) to that end.
The teams that participate the group stage are…
PΑΟΚ, AEK, Peristeri (Greece)
Banvit, Besiktas Sompo Japan, Gaziantep, Turk Telekom (Τurkey)
Elan Béarnais Pau-Lacq-Orthez, JDA Dijon, SIG Strasbourg (France)
BAXI Manresa, Iberostar Tenerife, Tecnyconta Zaragoza (Spain)
Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem, UNET Holon (Ιsrael)
Dinamo Banco di Sardegna Sassari, Happy Casa Brindisi (Ιtaly)
Brose Bamberg, RASTA Vechta (Germany)
Anwil Wloclawek (Poland)
CEZ Nymburk (Czech Republic)
Filou Oostende (Belgium)
Neptunas Klaipeda (Lithuania)
VEF Riga (Latvia)
The teams in the qualification rounds are…
First qualification round:
Bakken Bears (Danmark), Balkan Botevgrad (Bulgaria), CSM CSU Oradea (Romania), Donar Groningen (Netherlands), Fribourg Olympic (Switzerland), Inter Bratislava (Slovakia), Kapfenberg Bulls (Austria), Karhu Basket Kauhajoki (Finland), Keravnos (Cyprus), Kyiv-Basket (Ukraine), Legia Warszawa (Poland), Mornar Bar (Montenegro), Södertälje Kings (Sweden), Tsmoki-Minsk (Belorussia), Z-Mobile Prishtina (Kosovo) and the Champion from Hungary.
Second qualification round
Lietkabelis (Lithuania), Nizhny Novgorod (Russia), Openjobmetis Varese (Italy), Polski Cukier Torun (Poland), San Pablo Burgos (Spain), Telekom Baskets Bonn (Germany), Telenet Giants Antwerp (Belgium), Ventspils (Latvia).
