The Uralican Basketball League (Russ. Ураликская Баскетбол-Лига, Finn. Uralikan Koripalloliiga) is a 24-team professional basketball league from Uralica, set to start an abbreviated first season in March of 2010. In Uralica, the only truly professional sports were football (soccer), handball, and ice hockey prior to the annexation of several basketball-crazy areas into the country. Upon annexation of these areas, most notably Greater Yekaterinburg, the need was expressed to have a basketball league, as after football (soccer), it is the world's second most-popular sport.