Sport Basketball Inaugural season 2003/04 Country England | Founded 2003 No. of teams 30 Continent FIBA Europe (Europe) | |
The English Women's Basketball League (EBL) is a women's basketball league in England, covering semi-professional and amateur levels of the game. This is effectively seen as the second tier of women's basketball in the United Kingdom, along with the less celebrated Scottish Women's National League.
The EBL was established in 2003 by England Basketball to replace the former National Basketball League, and currently operates three women's leagues in a regionalised structure, as well as the men's English Basketball League. The senior leagues are supported by a junior structure for both male and female players, with leagues for under-18s, under-16s and under-14s.
The leagues operated by the EBL form the second level of women's competition in the United Kingdom, with the highest level consisting of the semi-professional Women's British Basketball League. There is no promotion and relegation between the EBL and the Women's British Basketball League, which operates a franchise system, although teams seeking greater competition and exposure can apply to make the step from EBL to the WBBL.
History
When it was founded in 2003, the women's EBL consisted of two levels of competition; a nationalized Division 1, closely matching the WNBL Conference which existed under the previous structure, and a regionalized Division 2, originally split into North and South conferences. At this point, there was no level of competition above Division 1, nor any competition for clubs on a British level. From the 2007/2008 season onwards, Division 2 was split into three regions to allow for the greater number of clubs applying for national competition.
In 2014, England Basketball and the British Basketball League collaborated to form the Women's British Basketball League, which absorbed many of the largest women's clubs in the EBL, including the whole of Division 1. As a result, the most established and successful clubs in women's basketball in the United Kingdom are no longer part of the EBL. Rather than reform a national division to operate under the new WBBL, the EBL has retained the original second-tier structure of the old Division 2, meaning the EBL is now a fully regionalized competition, with only the end-of-season playoffs offering the opportunity for clubs from across the whole of England to compete against each other.
EBL Women's Leagues for the 2015/2016 season.