Holding games in Indonesia, Japan, and the Philippines is a first in FIBA Basketball World Cup history
Art by Tricia Guevara | Photo from Inquirer Sports
FIBA has finally released the schedule for the 2023 Basketball World Cup. The host countries Indonesia, Japan, and the Philippines were finalized after a meeting with FIBA in which the best 32 countries will compete from Aug. 25 to Sept. 10, 2023 after a 15-month qualifying period.
This will be the first time that the World Cup, formerly the World Championships, will be held in multiple countries. Group games will take place in the three host countries, with the Philippines hosting the medal phase or final games in Manila. The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) announced the news on Twitter, assuring Filipino basketball fans that they will have something to look forward to after COVID-19.
The 2023 event will once again feature 32 national teams with the expanded format adopted for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 held in China, FIBA’s biggest event to date.
While the host countries are automatic qualifiers, pre-qualifying games for the 2023 World Cup began in February 2020 with the start of the 2023 European Pre-Qualifiers, which will determine the eight teams for the European Qualifiers. Meanwhile, the FIBA Basketball World Cup Americas Pre-Qualifiers are set to follow later this year to qualify four teams to the Americas Qualifiers.
Qualification will include six windows taking place from November 2021 to February 2023, with 80 national teams competing for a spot in the World Cup across Africa, the Americas, Asia/Oceania, and Europe. The first window of qualification will be held from Nov. 22 to 30, 2021.