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Scenes inside the Martín Carpena arena at a recent game. Ñito Salas
Malaga, a leading candidate to host the Final Four stage of the Basketball Champions League

Malaga, a leading candidate to host the Final Four stage of the Basketball Champions League

Talks are ongoing with FIBA, but local team Unicaja would have to qualify for this to become a reality

Juan Calderón

Tuesday, 14 February 2023, 15:43

Malaga is a leading contender to host the Final Four round of this year's Basketball Champions League - provided that local team Unicaja get that far in the competition.

Governing body FIBA wants to bring back its old format which sees a participating team acting as host after it was ditched last year and delivered disappointing results.

Last season, Bilbao, which didn't have a Champions League team, hosted the Final Four. However, in the absence of a team with a strong fan base, the overall atmosphere inside the Bilbao Arena was disappointing, despite many travelling fans coming to the Basque city from different countries. This year, FIBA doesn't want to repeat this error.

According to Diario de Avisos de Tenerife, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport of the Andalusian regional government are in talks with FIBA, with whom they have a good relationship, about Malaga hosting the Final Four this year. However, this would be conditional on Unicaja qualifying.

The side are currently group leaders in the Top 16 and should have no problems qualifying for the best-of-three quarter-final in which they would have home advantage. If they win that tie, they will be in the Final Four.

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