Cinkarna Celje and ŽKK Cinkarna Celje Continue Hand in Hand

Slovenian Champions Return to the European Stage After Eight Years in the 2026/2027 Season

Celje, 12 October 2026 – Cinkarna Celje and ŽKK Cinkarna Celje are entering the landmark tenth season of their general sponsorship partnership, while their collaboration as partners has spanned more than two decades. It is one of the longest-standing partnerships in Slovenian women’s sport.

During the past decade, since the Celje basketball team has proudly carried the name of one of Slovenia’s most successful companies, Cinkarna Celje, on its jerseys, the club has won 20 senior titles on the domestic and international stage. In its 32-year history, the club has collected a remarkable 47 trophies overall.

The story of Cinkarna Celje and Slovenia’s most successful women’s basketball club is built on trust and has played an important role in creating opportunities for generations of young female basketball players to develop and thrive.

In the 2026/27 season, which coincides with the celebration of 80 years since the beginnings of women’s basketball in Celje, the club embarks on a new chapter with a refreshed visual identity and an expanded international programme. Alongside participation in the regional WABA League, where Slovenia’s top women’s club has competed for 26 consecutive seasons, ŽKK Cinkarna Celje is also returning to European competition after an eight-year absence.

The club returns to the European stage where its long-standing general sponsor has likewise built a successful international story over decades. The team will begin its tenth season in the EuroCup Women, Europe’s second-tier club competition, on Wednesday, 14 October, away to Italy’s Magnolia Campobasso, last season’s third-placed team in the Italian championship.

Celje’s basketball fans will experience the club’s European home premiere on Thursday, 22 October, when Czech side KP Brno, a participant in this year’s EuroLeague Women qualification campaign, visits the Sports Hall of Gimnazija Celje – Center.

Borut Kop, President of ŽKK Cinkarna Celje: "We are extremely proud to continue our partnership with our long-standing sponsor, Cinkarna Celje. Without their support and understanding of our ideas and ambitions, it would be difficult to imagine the club operating at its current level. Over the years, both sides have built a partnership founded on trust, a clear vision, and an ambitious yet realistic and sustainable outlook on the future.

At our club, we will do everything we can to honour that trust and strengthen it further through hard work, quality performance, and sporting achievements. We have an exceptionally demanding season ahead of us in every respect. I am confident that, hand in hand with our general sponsor, we will continue to overcome every challenge and proudly represent its name on courts at home and abroad."

Aleš Skok, President of the Management Board of Cinkarna Celje: "Top-level sport and successful business are built on the same values: a clear vision, perseverance, responsibility, and above all, a strong team. As a company that generates the majority of its sales in international markets, we understand how much expertise, courage, and dedication are required to succeed in global competition. That is why I sincerely congratulate the players, coaching staff, and management of ŽKK Cinkarna Celje, who have, through strategic work, trust in young talent, and high ambitions, been creating one of Slovenia’s finest sporting success stories for decades. We are proud to stand alongside them as a long-term general sponsor as they return to European competition. When decades of trust meet new energy, there is only one fitting response: a packed arena. I invite all basketball fans to fill the stands of the Gimnazija Celje – Center Sports Hall this season. The greatest sporting stories are not watched from afar; they are experienced from the stands."

ŽKK Cinkarna Celje enters the new season with a refreshed visual identity, a redesigned website, and new team uniforms. The Sports Hall of Gimnazija Celje – Center has also welcomed the 2026/27 season in a renewed look.

Following another highly successful summer for Slovenia’s national teams, club president Borut Kop, Cinkarna Celje Management Board President Aleš Skok, and Celje Deputy Mayor Samo Seničar congratulated six young Cinkarna Celje players, Nea Mlinarič, Zoja Kump, Pia Pirih, Aljaša Sodin, Nika Balažić, and Nuša Brodnik, who won the silver medal with the Slovenian national team at this year’s FIBA U16 European Championship in Pitești, Romania.

Their achievement is yet another confirmation that the future of women’s basketball in Celje is in very safe hands.

Cinkarna Celje and ŽKK Cinkarna Celje.

Trust Drives Success.

_{Translated with AI}