VTB League News

Twelve clubs play thirty-two games in a two-phase regular season. The 2026-27 campaign tips off on September 25.

CSKA Moscow has won thirteen titles since the league started in 2009. Only three other clubs have ever won it.

We cover results, transfers and coaching changes across all twelve clubs. Players move in and out of this league every summer, and the ones we follow get a profile page.

How the 2026-27 season works

The regular season runs in two stages. First all twelve clubs play each other twice, then they split into two groups of six and play each other twice again.

That comes to thirty-two games. All six clubs in Group A go straight to the playoffs, so finishing in the top half of stage one settles it.

The top four in Group B play a play-in for the last two places. Quarterfinals are best of five, semifinals and the final best of seven.

The regular season closes on April 4 and the final is done by June 7.

No club in this league plays in Europe

FIBA withdrew Russian clubs from its competitions in 2022. Four seasons later that has not changed for clubs.

On September 1 this year FIBA lifted its restrictions on individual players, coaches, referees and officials with immediate effect. Clubs and national teams were left out.

The FIBA Central Board takes that question up in December 2026. Any ruling would cover FIBA’s own competitions, and the EuroLeague sets its own entry rules.

Astana is back and Vladivostok is new

Astana returns after sitting out last season, so this is the first campaign since 2022 that is not made up only of Russian clubs. Dynamo Vladivostok comes in as the twelfth member.

Vladivostok runs seven hours ahead of Moscow and Astana sits in Kazakhstan. The league now stretches across eight time zones.

That is not a footnote. It shapes the schedule, the travel budget and how tired a roster looks in March.

Thirteen titles for CSKA, three for everyone else

CSKA took the 2026 title with a 4-0 sweep of UNICS in the final. That was the thirteenth.

The full list of champions since 2009 is short. Khimki, UNICS and Zenit have one each, and nobody else has any.

So the title race is rarely the story. The play-in is, and so are the two new clubs finding their level.

The twelve clubs

AstanaAST

AvtodorSAR

CSKAMOS

DynamoVLA

EniseyKRY

LokomotivKRD

MBAMOS

ParmaPRM

SamaraSAM

UNICSKZN

UralmashEKB

ZenitSPB

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