RIDERS POISED FOR BCL

By Mark Woods on June 18, 2018

The Leicester Riders have applied to play in next seasonâ€™s FIBA Basketball Champions League.

If successful, the British Basketball League champions will be the first British team in European competition for over a decade.

They last competed in European competition since the 1991/1992 season where the Riders faced Spanish powerhouse CB Zaragoza in the first round of the second tier Korac Cup, losing both games.

The move should be a formality with Europeâ€™s third-tier competition accepting the winners of the top domestic divisions in over 50 European countries with professional basketball leagues with a 56-team fields with the initial block of three qualifying rounds starting on September 20.

The Champions League Board will meet on 27^thÂ June to review all applications.

24 teams will be seeded straight into the pool stage, while the other up to 32 teams will enter qualifying rounds to determine the additional 8 teams that make the pool stage.

Riders ChairmanÂ KevinÂ Routledge said:Â â€œHaving won the BBL Championship for the last three seasons, the prospect of playing against top European Clubs, and the champions of other countries, is definitely part of our vision for the Riders.

â€œIt will be a major logistical effort, and would put a big demand on the coaching staff and the players, because the competition takes place in mid-week, and the travel could be over very long distances. This would be on top of the normal BBL competitions, so the demands on the Club are immense. But we are getting a lot of encouragement from our sponsors and partners, and we have an ambition as a Club to take that next step.â€

Head Coach Rob Paternostro, who revealed Riders intent to MVP after the recent BBL Playoff Final, is excited by the opportunity.

â€œWe have talked about this for a while now and itâ€™s always been an ambition of ours to take the club into a European competition.

â€œI did it as a player in the 2001/02 season with the Birmingham Bullets. It was an awesome experience playing against teams from around Europe, but Iâ€™m also aware of the quality of player and depth you need to be able to compete and play as many games as it requires.â€

Do you like our work?

We have a tiny favour to ask. In 2018 we set out to make Hoopsfix sustainable by building our relationship directly with our readers. Up until now, Hoopsfix has been creating editorials, videos and podcasts to provide sorely missing coverage of the British game and its distinct culture and community.

We have funded Hoopsfix with our freelance work creating basketball media, but sadly that means not only does it fall behind our client’s priorities, but some of those clients are the same organisations we need to report objectively on putting us in a conflicted position.

We want to devote more time to our mission of helping British basketball reach its potential, and produce even more content for the basketball community by making Hoopsfix a sustainable 100% independent business funded directly by our readers through Patreon.

If everyone who enjoys our content chose to support us, our future would be much more secure. For as little as $3 per month, you can support Hoopsfix – and it only takes a minute.

We are tremendously honoured and humbled to have a community of people who value what we do, and we look forward to being at the forefront of the British game as it continues to evolve.

Support Hoopsfix