EuroLeague Final Four returns to Athens

Article posted by Coliseum, September 18^th, 2025

Image: OAKA Basketball Arena, Zafer, CC BY 4.0

The 2026 EuroLeague Final Four basketball tournament will be hosted in the Greek capital Athens at the renovated Telekom Center Athens.

BasketNews said the decision was taken at a EuroLeague shareholders meeting. Sources said it was the highest bid by a European city in years, with hosting rights estimated at around €9 million.

The EuroLeague Final Four is the Final Four format championship of the European-wide top-tier level EuroLeague professional club basketball competition.

Barcelona (Spain)-based the EuroLeague, officially the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, is a European men’s professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognized as the top-tier men’s league in Europe.

Telekom Center Athens, previously known as OAKA Basketball Arena is part of the Spyros Louis Olympic Athletic Center of Athens. It was completed in 1994 and is the largest indoor venue in Greece. It was used for sporting events at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

The venue is located in Marousi, a northern suburb of Athens. The 18,300-capacity arena is accompanied by an adjacent training facility, and a parking lot. It is the home of Panathinaikos basketball club.

The 2026 EuroLeague Final Four is set for the fourth weekend of May, with the semi-finals taking place on Friday, May 22. The championship game will be held on Sunday, May 24.

The venue formerly known as OAKA will now be renamed Telekom Center Arena under a new five-year naming rights agreement.

Athens and Belgrade were the final two candidates to host the 2026 EuroLeague Final Four, with the Greek capital ultimately securing the hosting rights.

Athens previously hosted the 2007 Final Four. Back then, Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens became the champions, claiming their fourth EuroLeague title at that time.

Overall, it will be the fourth EuroLeague Final Four hosted in Greece. The event was held in Piraeus in 1993, Thessaloniki in 2000, and Athens in 2007.

The 2025 EuroLeague Final Four was hosted for the first time outside Europe, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul were crowned champions.

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