The first stops on the road to the 2011 Euroleague Final Four are now clear after the regular season and qualifying rounds draws for the 2010-11 Euroleague season took place Thursday in Barcelona, Spain.

2010 Euroleague champion Regal FC Barcelona, runner-up Olympiacos Piraeus, 2008 champ CSKA Moscow and reigning Spanish champion Caja Laboral headline the regular season groups in which 22 teams were drawn. Sixteen more clubs will contest the qualifying rounds to round out the four groups of six teams.

Qualifying begins on September 21 and last through October 8, setting the stage for the new season. The regular season tips off with the traditional opening game, held this year on Monday, October 18, with the remaining 11 opening week games taking place later that week. The 10-game regular season culminates on December 23.

The Top 16 opens on January 16, 2011 and goes through March 3, after which the eight remaining teams will play in the best-of-five Quarterfinal Playoffs later that month and into early April to determine the foursome that will compete in the 2011 Final Four. Also drawn were the matchups for the Eurocup Qualifying Round as well. The day’s events included the awarding of a number of season-ending honors.

The 2010 Alexander Gomelskiy Coach of the Year award was presented to Regal FC Barcelona coach Xavi Pascual and the 2010 Executive of the Year to Asseco Prokom Gdynia president Przemyslaw Seczkowski, both as voted by their peers in the Euroleague. Seczkowski also received the Silver Marketing Devotion Award. Efes Pilsen Marketing Director Kutluhan Yavrucuk received the Gold Marketing Devotion Award and Jonas Stadalninkas, Marketing Director of Zalgiris Kaunas, the Bronze Marketing Devotion Award.

• To download the whole Regular Season calendar CLICK HERE.