Azerbaijan Basketball League 2025/26 season start date and regulations announced

The start date of the 2025/26 season in the Azerbaijan Basketball League (ABL) has been announced.

Idman.biz reports that the championship will begin on September 28.

According to the regulations, ABL games will consist of four rounds and 20 tours. The regular season games will be held divided into groups A and B. Based on the final results shown in the previous season, the groups in which the clubs will compete are as follows:

Group A: "Sabah", "Neftchi", "Shaki", "Absheron Lions", NTD, "Ganja"
Group B: "Nakhchivan", "Ordu", "Sarhadchi", "Sumgayit", "Guba", "Lankaran"

In the games of Group A of the regular championship, the main condition will be the participation of 4 foreign and 1 local basketball player on the court. In Group B games, it is mandatory to have 3 foreign and 2 local basketball players, including the 15th round, and 4 foreign and 1 local basketball player on the court from the 16th round. In the regular season, along with the clubs that finished in the top 3 in Group A, the team that finished as the leader in Group B will qualify for the 1/4 final stage of the playoffs. The teams that take other places in groups A and B will face each other in the 1/8 final stage of the playoffs. At this stage, the clubs that win two games the fastest will advance to the 1/4 finals. Both the 1/4 final and semi-final series will last up to 2 wins.

In the final series, the club that wins 3 games the fastest will become the champion of the Azerbaijan Basketball League (ABL).

It should be noted that, according to the final results of the championship, the clubs that finish the season in the top "8" in the ranking will compete in the 1st league (ABL) from the next season, and the teams that take 9th-12th places will compete in the 2nd league (ABL 2), which will be organized for the first time in the country's basketball.

Idman.biz