The English Basketball League (EBL) is a professional basketball, semi-professional, and amateur basketball league in England. It forms the second-tier of competition below the professional British Basketball League.
The EBL was established in 2003 by England Basketball to replace the former National Basketball League, and currently operates several men's and women's leagues in the British basketball pyramid, which is headed by Division 1. This is effectively seen as the second tier of men's basketball in the United Kingdom, along with the less celebrated Scottish Basketball League.
There are numerous leagues underneath the Division 1 men's and women's leagues, with the lower leagues operating on a regionalised basis.
Beneath the men's and women's national leagues is a junior structure for both male and female with leagues for under 18s, 16s, 15s, 14s, 13s. The England Basketball website contains all the relevant information
There is no promotion and relegation between the EBL and the British Basketball League, which operates a franchise system. Despite this, many teams have in recent years made the step from EBL to the BBL looking for greater competition and more exposure.
Read more about English Basketball League: Senior Competitions, VCARS.co.uk Partnership, Other Club's Websites
Famous quotes containing the words english, basketball and/or league:
“To be born in a new country one has to die in the motherland.”
—Irina Mogilevskaya, Russian student. “Immigrating to the U.S.,” student paper in an English as a Second Language class, Hunter College, 1995.
“Perhaps basketball and poetry have just a few things in common, but the most important is the possibility of transcendence. The opposite is labor. In writing, every writer knows when he or she is laboring to achieve an effect. You want to get from here to there, but find yourself willing it, forcing it. The equivalent in basketball is aiming your shot, a kind of strained and usually ineffective purposefulness. What you want is to be in some kind of flow, each next moment a discovery.”
—Stephen Dunn (b. 1939)
“Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward the Light Brigade!”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)