The birth of the Copa del Rey: 40 teams for a new competition without barriers
This is the main news of the 2024/25 season. The Copa del Rey will feature 40 teams and will be played in the first half of the season, ending with the Final Four on January 24 and 25.
The Princess Cup and the LEB Plata Cup have been combined into a separate competition – Spanish Cupwhich aims to increase the number of games, excitement and participation of more teams in the mid-season competition.
The first Copa del Rey will take place 40 participants: two teams relegated from the Endesa acb league, 13 teams retaining their category in LEB Oro in the 23/24 season, three teams relegated from LEB Oro to LEB Plata, three teams relegated from LEB Plata. LEB Oro, the 17th best classified (from 4th to 20th place) LEB Plata and two champions of the two final stages of the EBA League.
The competition system is divided into the first stage with eight groups of five teams classified according to geographical, sporting and compensation criteria between categories. Each team will play four games (two home and two away): three days in September, another on October 22 and the last on November 12.
The top eight ranked teams in each group will advance to the quarter-final round, where they will play out a draw on December 23 and January 7 (in pairs with a clear draw). The four winners will compete in the Final Four at the same location on January 24 and 25.
Men’s competition name change
President Elisa Aguilar stated at the Delegated Commission meeting that “we wanted to give a new image to the leagues and decided to change the logo and name of LEB Oro, LEB Plata and Liga EBA, trying to associate each league with a color” and unify the image of the three federated men’s competitions.” Starting from the 2024/25 season, they will be renamed Primera FEB, Segunda FEB and Tercera FEB and will have a new, unified image.