AEL Limassol (basketball)
| AEL Limassol | |||
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| Nickname |
Vasilissa (The Queen) (Greek: Βασίλισσα) |
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| Leagues | Cyprus Basketball Division B | ||
| Founded | 1966 | ||
| Arena | Nicos Solomonides | ||
| Capacity | 2,500 | ||
| Location | Limassol, Cyprus | ||
| Team colors | Yellow and Blue |
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| President | Andreas Sofokleous Kostas Christodoulou |
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| Championships |
13 Cypriot Championships 9 Cypriot Cups 8 Cypriot Super Cups 1 FIBA Regional Challenge Cup |
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| Uniforms | |||
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Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou (Greek: Αθλητική Ένωση Λεμεσού), often abbreviated as AEL (Greek: ΑΕΛ), is a Cypriot professional basketball club based in Limassol. It is part of the multisport club Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou and competed in the Cyprus Basketball Division 1. AEL competes in the second division since the 2015-16 season.
AEL is the most successful basketball club in Cyprus and holds the record for the number of national championships and Super Cups won. It is the only basketball club in Cyprus to have ever clinched a European title (FIBA Regional Challenge Cup, 2003).
The club was founded in 1966 and it is one of the founding members of the Cyprus Basketball Federation. AEL took part in the first official championship in 1967 with Michalaki Nikolaidi as coach and it managed early on to establish itself as the "Queen" of Cyprus basketball.
AEL became the dominant team in Cyprus in the 1980s, a decade in which it won 13 titles in total (6 national championships, 5 Cups, and 2 Super Cups).
The 1990s did not bring about much success as the club ended up winning only one title (in 1999), which however was to signal the beginning of another golden era.
By winning 14 domestic competitions in the 2000s (5 national championships, 3 Cups, and 6 Super Cups), as well as a European crown (Regional Challenge Cup, South Conference 2003), AEL enjoyed the most successful period in its history and retained its title as the "Queen" of Cyprus basketball.
To this day, no other basketball club from Cyprus can claim to have ever been crowned with a European title or to have won five consecutive national championships in a row.
In October 2014, the club announced the basketball section would be dissolved due to its economical trouble. In August 2015 AEL Limassol announced it would form a basketball team for the following season.
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