Following the creation of modern ULEB competitions (Euroleague in 2000 and ULEB Cup in 2002) and the disappearance of the old FIBA club tournaments (SuproLeague, Saporta Cup, and Korać Cup), the European Basketball Association decided to create brand-new competitions on behalf of a group of European clubs not powerful enough to be admitted by ULEB, but nevertheless with the sport and economic potential to be willing to compete at an international level. One of these competitions is the so-called EuroCup Challenge (ECC), which was originally intended as a FIBA correlate to ULEB Cup.

Unlike the traditional FIBA competitions, in which participation depended only on sport criteria (ranking of clubs in domestic tournaments), the participants in EuroCup Challenge were selected by FIBA Europe also according to logistic and economic criteria. On the other hand, this competition became the Second Division of FIBA tournaments, after it was decided that the finalists would receive an invitation to participate in next season's EuroCup (the main clubs competition organized by FIBA Europe).

During the first season of ECC (2002-03), the competition was played under a conference system and was called Champions Cup (the name of the former European top-tier competition). In addition, there was a parallel competition called Regional Challenge Cup, with two different winners for Conference North (Azovmash) and Conference South (AEL). In the following two editions (2003-04 and 2004-05) the tournament was renamed Europe Cup, but it kept the same conference system as before. From season 2005-06 on, the regional divisions disappeared and the competition adopted its final name: EuroCup Challenge.

NOTES

• Official FIBA Europe scores and statistics extended and corrected with multilingual edition.

• Visit the official FIBA Europe site for a more detailed information on this tournament.