FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023: The senior men’s national teams of the members of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the sport’s international governing body, compete in the FIBA Basketball World Cup, also known as the FIBA World Cup of Basketball or simply the FIBA World Cup, which was known as the FIBA World Championship between 1950 and 2010. It is regarded as the FIBA’s premier tournament.
The tournament format is comparable to, but not identical to, that of the FIFA World Cup; from 1970 to 2014, both of these international events were held in the same year. The FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, a parallel competition for female teams, is also conducted every four years.
The men’s and women’s championships were contested in separate nations in the same year from 1986 to 2014. In the tournament’s current format, 32 teams battle it out for the trophy at locations in the host country. The Naismith Trophy, originally given out in 1967, is given to the winning team. Spain is the current champion after defeating Argentina in the 2019 tournament’s championship match.
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In order to avoid clashing with the FIBA World Cup, the men’s World Cup was set on a new four-year cycle after the 2014 FIBA championships for men and women. In 2019, the year following the FIBA World Cup, the men’s World Cup was held.
After its 2014 edition, the women’s tournament underwent a name change from “FIBA World Championship for Women” to “FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup,” however it will continue to run on the same four-year cycle as the FIFA World Cup.
The first FIBA World Cup competition in which currently active US NBA players who had furthermore participated in an official NBA regular season game were permitted to compete was the 1994 FIBA World Championship, which was held in Canada. Since then, every FIBA World Championship/World Cup competition is regarded as being at the highest professional level.
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How to qualify in FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023?
FIBA awarded hosting rights for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 to Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines in December 2017. Eighty national teams are in the hunt to secure their spot in the 32 team tournament through six World Cup qualifying windows, which take place from November 2021 to February 2023.
On August 25th, the World Cup Group Phase will start in the three host countries and end in Manila, Philippines for the Final Phase. On September 10th, a champion will earn the crown.
Qualification for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 follows the FIBA Men’s National Team Competition System, which sets out the road to all of FIBA’s main men’s competitions.
Following its successful implementation in the lead-up to the last edition of FIBA’s flagship event in 2019, the same principles have been applied to continue to ensure regular and competitive national team games for fans from all around the world to experience.
The Qualifiers format for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 will remain unchanged, with six windows over a 15-month period across the four regions of Africa, Americas, Asia (including Oceania) and Europe.
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The Qualifiers will take place from November 2021 to February 2023 with 80 national teams competing for a spot in the World Cup. The first window of qualification will be played from November 22 – 30, 2021.
1st Window: November 22 – 30, 2021
2nd Window: February 21 – March 1, 2022
3rd Window: June 27 – July 5, 2022
4th Window: August 22 – 30, 2022
5th Window: November 7 – 15, 2022
6th Window: February 20 – 28, 2023
FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023
Sixteen nations are vying for the continent’s five spots in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. They are Angola, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Congo DR, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda.
During five World Cup qualifying sessions, the 16 African nations will compete in the FIBA Basketball World Cup African Qualifiers.
The 16 teams will be split into four groups of four teams each for the first round. In two tournaments spread across three event periods, each team will compete against the other three teams in its group. In each window, the teams will play three games. These three nine-day periods, beginning in November 2021, February 2022, and June 2022, will be used.
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To proceed to the second round of the African Qualifiers, the top three teams from each group must finish first. The three teams who advanced from the group will now join three additional teams to form two groups of six teams. All teams’ first-round results will be carried over.
Each team will face the other new team in their group in the Second Round over two tournaments held across two event periods scheduled for August 2022 and February 2023.
The two best teams in each group, together with the best third-place team, will advance to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 after the conclusion of these additional six games per team.
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The qualification process follows the FIBA Competition System successfully used for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019.
When will the windows take place?
- 1st Window: November 22 – 30, 2021
- 2nd Window: February 21 – March 1, 2022
- 3rd Window: June 27 – July 5, 2022
- 4th Window: August 22 – 30, 2022
- 5th Window: February 20 – 28, 2023
What’s a window?
The windows are where teams will play the qualifying games. Each of the five windows for the African Qualifiers are nine days in length.
How did teams make it to the African Qualifiers?
The 16 teams participating in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 African Qualifiers are the 16 teams which competed in the FIBA AfroBasket 2021.
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Which group will advancing teams go to from the First Round to the Second Round?
At the end of the third window, the top three teams from each group progress to the Second Round. In the Second Round, the First Round Groups merge as follows to form a new six-team groups:
- A and C => E
- B and D => F
What happens if teams in the same group finish a Round tied?
Here’s how ties will be broken if two teams are tied in classification from the same group (ranked from first tie-breaker to be used to last):
- Win-Loss
- Goal difference of games between teams concerned
- Higher number of goals in the games between them
- Higher goal difference in all games of the group
- Higher number of goals in all games in the group
- Draw
Do teams carry over their results from the First Round to the Second Round?
Yes! A team’s final record after the conclusion of the Second Round includes their win-loss record from the First Round. This helps ensure every game matters throughout the five qualifying windows.
FIBA Competition System
For more information, go to the Official Basketball Rules and consult Art. D.1.3 (pages 75-80)
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