BCL Americas Season 4's groups are set

MIAMI (United States) – The drawing of the fourth season of Basketball Champions League Americas was held this Friday in the city of Miami, United States.

The event started with some remarks from Horacio Muratore, FIBA Honorary President and President of the BCL Americas Board.

"In the name of all the members of the Executive Board, it's an honor for all of us to welcome you to this new edition of our league. This fourth season required the support, work and effort of many interested parts and that’s why I want to thank the national federations, the national leagues, the clubs, their executives, players, coaches, referees and all of the tournament's staff, working under our Executive Director, Carlos Alves. I also want to highlight the international support for this program from FIBA President Hamane Niang; our Secretary General Andreas Zagklis; our FIBA Senior Director and Basketball Champions League Europe President Markus Studer; and Carol Callan, President of FIBA Americas."

"At FIBA we want to keep working on the growth of our main club competition in the Americas, while always trying to expand the participation of countries and teams," said Muratore.

Carlos Alves, Executive Director of the FIBA Americas Regional Office hosted the drawing, which was broadcasted live via the official YouTube channel.

"In the name of FIBA, it's a pleasure to welcome our many national federations, leagues and participating clubs to this fourth season of BCL Americas. I also want to thank the people and entities that contribute to this iconic project's success," said Alves during his presentation.

As for the ceremony, Group A had been previously assigned due to geographic and logistical reasons, and will include Real Estelí (Nicaragua), Honey Badgers (Canada) and Libertadores de Querétaro (Mexico). The drawing determined the participants of Groups B, C and D.

The proceedings established that teams from the same country couldn't be in the same group. The teams were placed in four different lottery drums. The first one had the leaders of each of the local leagues: Instituto (Argentina), Franca (Brazil) and Biguá (Uruguay) as heads of group. The second one had the two remaining Brazilian squads, Flamengo and Minas. The third had the other two clubs from Argentina, Obras and Quimsa, while the fourth had the final two teams, Peñarol (Uruguay) and Universidad de Concepción (Chile).

These were the results of the drawing:

Group A: Real Estelí, Honey Badgers, Libertadores de Querétaro.
Group B: Biguá, Minas, Quimsa.
Group C: Instituto, Flamengo, Peñarol.
Group D: Franca, Obras, UdeC.

The 2022-23 BCL Americas season will start on December 9th. The Group Stage will be played in December, January and February for a total of 36 games. Each team will have the opportunity to host their group. The two best teams from each group will advance to the Quarter Finals, to be played in March. There, teams will be arranged according to their record. Clubs from Group A will face those from Group B, while teams from Group C will match up against those from Group D on best-of-three series. The winners will advance to the Final 4, to be played in April.

The three previous editions of BCL Americas had different champions. The first one was Quimsa (Argentina), then Flamengo (Brazil) – the last winner of the FIBA Intercontinental Cup – and during the most recent edition, Sao Paulo (Brazil), who will represent the Americas in the 2023 FIBA Intercontinental Cup. The winner of this edition of BCLA will clinch a spot in the FIBA Intercontinental Cup 2024.

BCL Americas, formed through an innovative partnership between FIBA, national federations and leagues, is the most important men’s basketball league in the continent.

FIBA