Top men's professional basketball league in Kosovo
Basketball league
The Kosovo Basketball Superleague (Albanian: Superliga e Kosovës në Basketboll) and known as the ArtMotion Superliga due to sponsorship reasons is the top men's professional basketball league in Kosovo. Basketball Superleague was founded in 1991. It is run by the Basketball Federation of Kosovo.
Prishtina holds the record for most Superleague titles as it has won the championship 14 times.
Rules
Competition format
It consists of eight to ten teams which compete each year in two separate phases. Each team has to play all the other teams in its division four times, twice at home and twice away. This means that in Kosovo basketball, the league's regular season ends after all teams play 28 matches.
At the end of the league, the four best teams in the standings start a play-off, pitting the first place team in the standings versus the 4th place team in the standings, and so on. There is one playoff rounds, and the winner of the finals round becomes the champion of the Kosovo Basketball Superleague. This is similar to the most basketball leagues in Europe.
Each season, the last qualified team of the regular season relegates to Kosovo Basketball First League and replaced by champion of the First League whilst second from last of Superleague meats the runner up of the First League in e Relegation Playoff.
Foreigners
Each team can play 3 foreign players in every match that is organized by BFK.
Youngsters
Every team must play two U20 players in every game for at least 20 min otherwise the teams are fined 500 €.
Arena standards
Since the establishment of the league, the indoor courts in Kosovo have seen continuous improvements in capacity and facilities, with some municipalities have built and newly built stadiums for basketball clubs in their areas as well as other sports. Today, the facilities of the clubs participating in Kosovo Basketball Superleague and hosting the home matches, must have a minimum capacity of 1,000 people.
History
Despite the political status of Kosovo, basketball competitions have been legally organized since 1999 under the Basketball Federation of Kosovo licensed by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo and the Government of Kosovo.[1] However, the KBF has functioned since 1991 and organized amateur basketball leagues.[1]
Today, basketball in Kosovo shares the same popularity with football.
Names of the competition
- 1999–2004: Liga e Pare e Kosoves ne Basketboll
- 2004–2005: Liga Profesionale e Basketbollit te Kosoves
- 2005–2007: Raiffeisen Superliga
- 2007–2009: Siguria Superliga
- 2009–2011: Techno Market Superliga
- 2011–2013: BKT Superliga
- 2013–2017: ETC Superliga
- 2017–2020: IP Superliga
- 2020-2021: FiveStar Superliga
- 2021-2022: ArtMotion Superliga
- 2022–Present: PrinceCaffe Superliga
Gallery
Commissioners
- 2006–2011: Nuredin Ibishi
- 2013–Present: Bajrush Ademi
Winner by season
Here is the list of the champions of Kosovo year by year [2]
Titles by Club
2023–24 Kosovo Basketball Superleague
