Natiq Nasirov

The Basketball Champions League Board ratified on Tuesday the list of 29 clubs with a direct berth in the 2025-26 BCL Regular Season, as well as the 24 clubs that will compete in the Qualification Round tournaments for the remaining three tickets to the 32-team Regular Season.

The complete lineup features 16 national league champions, eight of which are in the Regular Season. Out of the 29 teams entering the Regular Season directly, 10 are newcomers to the BCL.

One of the newcomers is Sabah Basketball Club, a representative from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

Sabah BK, which debuted in the Azerbaijan Basketball League in the 2022/2023 season, won the regular season in its debut year.

Before the start of the 2023/2024 season, 7 new legionnaires joined the club, including Artems Butyankovs, Kivon Deveport, Donovan Smith. They defeated Khazri in the final and became the champion of Azerbaijan again.

In the 2024/2025 season, they became the champion of Azerbaijan for the third time in a row. They won the regular season. In the final series, they defeated “Neftchi” with a score of 4:2.

The club's head coach is world basketball legend Rimas Kurtinaitis.