Salary caps in European basketball: Examining EuroLeague’s new ‘Competitive Balance Standards’ as FIBA-NBA eye rival league

On 16 September 2024, EuroLeague presented its new Competitive Balance Standards (CBS), ^[1] a comprehensive set of regulations expanding the league’s Financial Stability & Fair Play Regulations^[2] (FSFPR) which have been in force since 2014-15 season. More recently, on 5 March 2025, EuroLeague officially announced the adoption of the CBS and confirmed that the upcoming 2025-26 season begins the initial phase of the progressive implementation process, which is due to be completed by the 2027-28 season^[3].

In principle, the FSFPR aim at protecting the collective interest of all basketball clubs participating in EuroLeague competition from the financial risk of individual clubs by limiting the contribution of shareholders and promoting business performance and introducing an overdue payables system for monitoring clubs’ overall financial situation.  The CBS are considered as a natural evolution of FSFPR with its overarching purpose of strengthening financial sustainability and – most importantly – promoting competitive balance among EuroLeague clubs. These goals are to be achieved by adopting measures that limit how much money club can spend on players’ salaries in order to level the playing field between them. Consequently, the CBS constitute the first ever salary cap system in the European basketball.

Given the potential impact of the CBS not only on all stakeholders of the EuroLeague, but also its cutting-edge character in general, this article examines:

• Background to European basketball: EuroLeague and FIBA’s rocky relationship
• The purpose and key concepts of CBS
• A brief comparison to the NBA’s salary cap system
• How might CBS be viewed under EU law?
• Could FIBA-NBA take a different approach?