President of EGBL, Vice President of EYBL IGO ZANDERS
EYBL was founded in 1998, two years later – year 2000 was special with the fact that exactly when the
Olympic Games took place in Sydney, a new sports event was founded – European Girls Basketball
League (EGBL) was established on September 19th.
During the first year the best teams from 6 countries took part in EGBL, the best girls’ teams from
Poland (Sokolov Podlaski UKS Olimp, Koszalin UKS 16), Belarus (Minsk Horizont), Lithuania (BS Kaunas,
BS Vilnius and BC Laisve), Estonia (Tartu Taba – 89), Russia (Moscow Spartak) and from Latvia SS Ridzene
and BC Kolibri both from Riga participated in the first season EGBL.
In the 25th season, the best girls’ teams from 23 countries are participating – Finland, Sweden, United
Kingdom, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Slovakia, Czech
Republic, Serbia, Kazahstan, Georgia, Greece, Belgium, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Italy, Norway and Latvia.
These 25 years have been an amazing experience for me, as the president of EGBL, also for coaches and
girls who we have seen growing professionally – from kids to professional basketball players. Only
together can we make this happen, so I would like to thank everyone who has helped to make these 24
basketball seasons at such a high and professional level, also thank you to everyone who believes that
with the strenght of this league we are making our European basketball world better.