FIBA Intercontinental Cup

For the international basketball tournament named to William Jones, see William Jones Cup.

FIBA Intercontinental Cup

Organising body	FIBA
Founded	1965 (1965)
First season	1965
Country	FIBA member countries
Confederation	FIBA Americas and FIBA Europe
Number of teams	4
Current champions	Flamengo (2nd title)
Most championships	Real Madrid (5 titles)
Website	intercontinentalcup.basketball
2022 FIBA Intercontinental Cup

The FIBA Intercontinental Cup, also commonly referred to as the FIBA World Cup for Champion Clubs, or the FIBA Club World Cup, is a professional basketball clubs competition that is endorsed by FIBA and the NBA. 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.

The league champions of the National Basketball Association (NBA), which is widely considered the most prestigious basketball league in the world, currently decline participation. The North American spot is instead allocated to the champions of the NBA's developmental league, the G League. The league champions of the EuroLeague, which is considered Europe's most prestigious club competition, are not currently permitted to participate in the competition due to the league's dispute with FIBA. In place of the EuroLeague champions, FIBA Europe instead sends the champions of their main club competition, the Basketball Champions League (BCL).

The champions of the Basketball Africa League (since 2022) and the FIBA Asia Champions Cup (since 2023) also receive a place in the tournament. FIBA has in the past announced plans to expand the tournament to possibly include the champion teams from the Australian National Basketball League (NBL), and possibly the NBA, at some point in the future.

Format

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.

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.

History

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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

Names of the competition

Part of the official logo with the current competition name.

• 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.

1965 test tournament

Ginásio Poliesportivo Parque São Jorge, where the 1965 FIBA Intercontinental Cup Test was held.

Main article: 1965 FIBA Intercontinental Cup Test Tournament

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. Due to the test tournament's great success (attendance for the game was 10,000), 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.

1972 special version

Main article: 1972 FIBA Intercontinental Cup of National Teams

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.

Results

Year	Hosts	Champions	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place	Result(s) / Note(s)
1965* Details	São Paulo	Corinthians	Real Madrid	N/A	N/A	118–109 Unofficial test tournament
1966 Details	Madrid	Ignis Varese	Corinthians	Real Madrid	Chicago Jamaco Saints	Final: 66–59 3rd place game: 112–96
1967 Details	Italy (3 cities)	Akron Goodyear Wingfoots	Ignis Varese	Simmenthal Milano	Corinthians	Final: 78–72 3rd place game: 90–89
1968 Details	Philadelphia	Akron Goodyear Wingfoots	Real Madrid	Simmenthal Milano	Botafogo	Final: 105–73 3rd place game: 82–54
1969 Details	Macon	Akron Goodyear Wingfoots	Spartak ZJŠ Brno	Sírio	Real Madrid	Final: 84–71 3rd place game: 72–60
1970 Details	Varese	Ignis Varese	Real Madrid	Corinthians	Slavia VŠ Praha	Five team league stage
1972* Details	São Paulo	NABL All-Stars	Soviet Union	Brazil	Poland	Four team league stage
1973 Details	São Paulo	Ignis Varese	Sírio	Vaqueros de Bayamón	Jugoplastika	Five team league stage
1974 Details	Mexico City	Maryland Terrapins	Ignis Varese	Vila Nova	Real Madrid	Six team league stage
1975 Details	Italy (2 cities)	Birra Forst Cantù	Amazonas Franca	Real Madrid	Penn Quakers	Six team league stage
1976 Details	Buenos Aires	Real Madrid	Mobilgirgi Varese	Obras Sanitarias	Amazonas Franca	Six team league stage
1977 Details	Madrid	Real Madrid	Mobilgirgi Varese	Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv	Atlética Francana	Six team league stage
1978 Details	Buenos Aires	Real Madrid	Obras Sanitarias	Sírio	Mobilgirgi Varese	Five team league stage
1979 Details	São Paulo	Sírio	Bosna	Emerson Varese	Piratas de Quebradillas	Five team league stage
1980 Details	Sarajevo	Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv	Atlética Francana	Bosna	Real Madrid	Five team league stage
1981 Details	São Paulo	Real Madrid	Sírio	Clemson Tigers	Atlética Francana	Final: 109–83 3rd place game: 79–73
1982 Details	Netherlands (3 cities)	Ford Cantù	Nashua EBBC	Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv	Air Force Falcons	Six team league stage
1983 Details	Buenos Aires	Obras Sanitarias	Jollycolombani Cantù	Peñarol	Monte Líbano	Six team league stage
1984 Details	São Paulo	Banco di Roma	Obras Sanitarias	Sírio	FC Barcelona	Five team league stage
1985 Details	Spain (2 cities)	FC Barcelona	Monte Líbano	Cibona	San Andrés	Final: 93–89 3rd place game: 109–82
1986 Details	Argentina (2 cities)	Žalgiris	Ferro Carril Oeste	Cibona	Corinthians	Final: 84–78 3rd place game: 119–96
1987 Details	Milan	Tracer Milano	FC Barcelona	Cibona	Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv	Final: 100–84 3rd place game: 106–96
1988–1995		Competition inactive
1996 Details	Home and away	Panathinaikos	Olimpia	N/A	N/A	2–1 play-off 83–89 / 83–78 / 101–76
1997–2012		Competition inactive
2013 Details	Home and away	Olympiacos	Pinheiros Sky	N/A	N/A	167–139 81–70 / 86–69
2014 Details	Home and away	Flamengo	Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv	N/A	N/A	156–146 66–69 / 90–77
2015 Details	Home and away	Real Madrid	Bauru	N/A	N/A	181–170 90–91 / 91–79
2016 Details	Frankfurt	Guaros de Lara	Fraport Skyliners	N/A	N/A	74–69
2017 Details	La Laguna	Iberostar Tenerife	Guaros de Lara	N/A	N/A	76–71
2019 Details	Rio de Janeiro	AEK	Flamengo	San Lorenzo	Austin Spurs	Final: 86–70 3rd place game: 77–59
2020 Details	La Laguna	Iberostar Tenerife	Virtus Segafredo Bologna	San Lorenzo	Rio Grande Valley Vipers	Final: 80–72 3rd place game: 96–90
2021 Details	Buenos Aires	San Pablo Burgos	Quimsa	N/A	N/A	Final: 82–73
2022 Details	Cairo	Flamengo	San Pablo Burgos	Lakeland Magic	Zamalek	Final: 75–62 3rd place game: 113–78

* Unofficial – the 1965 edition of the tournament was a test edition.
* National teams – the 1972 edition of the tournament was contested by national teams rather than professional clubs.

Statistics

Performance by club

Rank	Club	Title(s)	Year(s)	Runner(s)-up	Year(s)
1	Real Madrid	5	1976, 1977, 1978, 1981, 2015	2	1968, 70
2	Varese	3	1966, 1970, 1973	4	1967, 74, 76, 77
3	Akron Wingfoots	3	1967, 1968, 1969	–	–
4	Cantù	2	1975, 1982	1	1983
	Flamengo	2	2014, 2022	1	2019
6	1939 Canarias	2	2017, 2020	–
7	Sírio	1	1979	2	1973, 81
	Obras Sanitarias	1	1983	2	1978, 84
9	Maccabi Tel Aviv	1	1980	1	2014
	FC Barcelona	1	1985	1	1987
	Guaros de Lara	1	2016	1	2017
	San Pablo Burgos	1	2021	1	2022
13	Maryland Terrapins	1	1974	–
	Virtus Roma	1	1984	–
	Žalgiris	1	1986	–
	Olimpia Milano	1	1987	–
	Panathinaikos	1	1996	–
	Olympiacos	1	2013	–
	AEK	1	2019	–
20	Franca	–		2	1975, 80
21	Corinthians	–		1	1966
	Brno	–		1	1969
	Bosna	–		1	1979
	EBBC	–		1	1982
	Monte Líbano	–		1	1985
	Ferro Carril Oeste	–		1	1986
	Olimpia	–		1	1996
	Pinheiros	–		1	2013
	Bauru	–		1	2015
	Skyliners Frankfurt	–		1	2016
	Virtus Bologna	–		1	2020
	Quimsa	–		1	2021
Total		30		30

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

Performance by country

Rank	Country	League(s)	Title(s)	Runner(s)-up
1	Spain	Primera División / ACB	9	4
2	Italy	LBA	7	6
3	United States	NABL – 3	4	–
		NCAA Division I – 1		–
4	Brazil	CBB / NBB	3	9
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	Czechoslovakia	CSBL	–	1
	Germany	BBL	–	1
	Netherlands	DBL	–	1
	Yugoslavia	FFL	–	1
Total			30	30

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

MVP awards

Main article: FIBA Intercontinental Cup MVP

Finals top scorers

Bob Morse was the FIBA Intercontinental Cup Finals' Top Scorer in 1974.

Arvydas Sabonis was the FIBA Intercontinental Cup Finals' Top Scorer in 1986.

Bob McAdoo was the FIBA Intercontinental Cup Finals' Top Scorer in 1987.

• Player nationality shown by national team.

Year	Name(s)	Club(s)	Points	Ref.
1965*	Wlamir Marques	Corinthians	51
1966	Giovanni Gavagnin	Ignis Varese	20
1967	Tony Gennari	Ignis Varese	25
1968	Miles Aiken	Real Madrid	23
1969	Jan Bobrovský	Spartak ZJŠ Brno	34
1970	Jiří Zídek Sr.	Slavia VŠ Praha	20
1972*	Roberto "Robertão" José Corrêa	Brazil	20
1973	Arturo Guerrero	Sírio	26
1974	John Lucas II Bob Morse	Maryland Terrapins Ignis Varese	24
1975	Wayne Brabender	Real Madrid	24
1976	Rafael Rullán	Real Madrid	23
1977	Walter Szczerbiak Sr.	Real Madrid	29
1978	John Coughran	Real Madrid	26
1979	Oscar Schmidt	Sírio	42
1980	Earl Williams	Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv	28
1981	Mirza Delibašić	Real Madrid	33
1982	Antonello Riva Dan Cramer	Ford Cantù Nashua EBBC	22
1983	Antonello Riva	Jollycolombani Cantù	28
1984	Ray Townsend	Banco di Roma	29
1985	Juan Antonio San Epifanio "Epi"	FC Barcelona	39
1986	Arvydas Sabonis	Žalgiris	26
1987	Bob McAdoo	Tracer Milano	25
1996	Jorge Racca	Olimpia	28
2013	Shamell Stallworth	Pinheiros Sky	27
2014	Jeremy Pargo	Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv	28
2015	Ricardo Fischer	Bauru	26
2016	Zach Graham	Guaros de Lara	19
2017	Mario Little	Guaros de Lara	23
2019	Jordan Theodore	AEK	22
2020	Marcelo Huertas	Iberostar Tenerife	23
2021	Brandon Robinson	Quimsa	25
2022	Carlos Olivinha	Flamengo	17

* Unofficial – the 1965 edition of the tournament was a test edition.
* National teams – the 1972 edition of the tournament was contested by national teams, rather than clubs.

Broadcasters

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. The tournament is also streamed for free through both FIBA's Facebook and NBA G League's Twitch channel, as well as the FIBA-DAZN's subscription streaming service Livebasketball.TV.

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

External links

• 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)