| Sport | Basketball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1945 |
| Country(ies) | SFR Yugoslavia FR Yugoslavia / Serbia and Montenegro |
| Continent | Europe |
The Yugoslav Basketball League was the name of two successive national basketball leagues:
The name YUBA Liga was used in Serbia until 2006. It consisted of a top level "Super League" and the second level "First League", each having their own men's and women's divisions.
The league was also named "YUBA Liga Frikom" and "Atlas Pils YUBA Liga" for sponsorship reasons.
Although all countries founded after the breakup of Yugoslavia each now have their own leagues, five of the six nations now take part in the Adriatic League, founded in 2001, today the closest league in existence similar to the former Yugoslav Basketball League.
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After the formation of Yugoslavia in 1945, there arose a need for athletic development in the fledgling nation. Post-WW2 Yugoslavia was (with the exception of major cities such as Belgrade, Ljubljana, Zagreb, and Sarajevo) for the most part lacking in competitive opportunities in sports. In response to this, 1945 and 1946 saw an explosion of new clubs and leagues for every sport, the basketball league being part of this phenomenon.
The very first competition under the newly formed Yugoslav Basketball League in 1945, drawing parallel to the Yugoslav First League (of football), was more or less a nationwide affirmation of unity. Instead of individual clubs competing in the usual fashion, there were only eight teams. Six representing each state within Yugoslavia, one representing the province of Vojvodina, and the last representing the Yugoslav People's Army.
Only in the 1970s did the basketball culture of Yugoslavia truly come to enjoy recognition as the top nation in basketball. Breaking away from the dominance of the Soviet Union, the Yugoslav league gave rise to stars that would go on to win multiple Basketball World Championships and European Basketball Championships. After a decade of dominance, the 1980s saw a disappointing slump of talent in the Yugoslav Basketball League.
Once again the world witnessed a sleeping giant come awake in the early 90s as Yugoslavia won two straight European Basketball Championships and a World Basketball Championship. This momentum was swiftly halted by the ethnic strife which broke out in 1991, and divided the nation into five successor republics, each founding their own basketball federations with the exception of Serbia and Montenegro, which retained the name Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the YUBA Liga.
When Serbia and Montenegro peacefully separated in 2006, the YUBA Liga ceased to exist and was re-branded as the Basketball League of Serbia a Serbia-only organization, with Montenegro forming its own federation.
Despite all changes joint league of clubs from former Yugoslavia proved to be winning formula so on July 3, 2001 Adriatic League was founded. It features teams from all former states excluding Macedonia and exists alongside scaled-down versions of domestic leagues.
Both the Super League and First League used a double round-robin style qualification round, where each team played every other team both at home and away. Even the quarters, semis, and finals were played at home and away, including a tie-breaker if necessary with the home advantage awarded to the better qualifying team.
The Super League men's contained eight clubs, while women's contained six. Immediately after the qualification round were the semi finals, in which the top four qualifying teams competed in. While the two leagues worked exactly the same, the First League however, contained almost twice as many clubs as the Super League, fourteen and twelve for men's and women's respectively and therefore included quarter finals.
Yugoslav Cup Champions:
(As Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
(Championship Format Change)
Source: official website archive[1]
(As FR Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro)
Source: official website archive[2]
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