Final Eight of the СYBL Championship will be held in St. Petersburg again

April 2, 2025

For the second year in a row, the Final Eight of the Russian U19 Championship will take place in St. Petersburg. The decisive matches of the Children's Youth Basketball League will be held from April 24 to 29 at the Zenit Basketball Academy (Severnaya Road, 12).

For the first time in history, two children's youth teams will represent Zenit in the final stage of the CYBL Championship. Both St. Petersburg teams — Zenit U19, led by Dmitry Nikolaev, and Zenit 2008, coached by Petar Marinkovic — secured their spots in the Final Eight at the end of the second semifinal round. It is worth noting that Zenit U19 is the reigning tournament champion and is undoubtedly aiming to defend its title.

The Final Eight participants will be divided into two groups. Group "F1" includes both blue-whites teams, as well as Rusichi-CYBL (Kursk) and FOK Meshchersky (Nizhny Novgorod). Group "F2" consists of Samara-CYBL, UNICS-CYBL (Kazan), MBA-CYBL, and CSKA-CYBL (both from Moscow).

After the group stage, knockout games will begin: the top two teams from each group will compete in the semifinals using a cross-bracket system, while the bottom two teams will face off for 5th-8th places. Group stage matches are scheduled for April 24-26, semifinal matches will take place on April 28, and the final, along with placement matches, will be held on April 29.

Group stage schedule according to St. Petersburg time:

April 24

10:00 — CSKA-CYBL vs. Samara-CYBL

12:15 — MBA-CYBL vs. UNICS-CYBL

14:30 — Rusichi-CYBL vs. Zenit 2008

16:45 — Zenit U19 vs. FOK Meshchersky

April 25

10:00 — UNICS-CYBL vs. CSKA-CYBL

12:15 — Samara-CYBL vs. MBA-CYBL

14:30 — FOK Meshchersky vs. Rusichi-CYBL

16:45 — Zenit 2008 vs. Zenit U19

April 26