The 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup will be the 17th edition of the FIBA Basketball World
Cup, the tournament previously known as the FIBA World Championship.
To be hosted by Spain, it will be the last time the tournament will be held on the current
four-year cycle.
The next FIBA World Cup will be held five years later, in 2019, to reset the cycle on
a different year than the FIFA World Cup
The winner qualifies for the 2016 Summer Olympics basketball tournament in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
Host selection FIBA opened the bidding process on 10 January
2008 and all the letters of intent were submitted on 30 April 2008.
Nine countries showed interest in hosting the event, as in order, they were Spain, France,
Denmark, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Italy, Greece, and China.
Among the nine, only three were shortlisted by FIBA: China which would have hosted the
2009 FIBA Asia Championship later that year, Italy which last hosted a FIBA tournament
in EuroBasket Women 2007, and FIBA EuroBasket 2007 hosts Spain.
On 23 May 2009, after voting by the FIBA Central Board in Geneva in which the Chinese and Spanish
representatives abstained, China was the first to be eliminated in the first round of voting.
In the final round, Arvydas Sabonis and Saša Djordjević announced that Spain won the hosting
rights with eleven votes as opposed to Italy's eight.
Venues Palacio de Deportes de la Comunidad de Madrid
will be the main venue, hosting the final and half of the matches in the final round.
While no arenas from the 1986 FIBA World Championship will be reused, the current Madrid arena was
built on the site of the original venue that was destroyed by fire in 2001, which was a
venue used in 1986.
Amongst venues used in FIBA EuroBasket 2007, the arenas in Granada, Seville and Madrid
will be reused.
One arena, the Gran Canaria Arena, is the only new venue, being built after the tournament
was awarded to Spain.
The other cities will host a group.
On 17 April 2010, Barcelona was added to the list of cities to hold games, bringing the
total venues to six.
This will be Barcelona's first time being part of a major international event in basketball
since the 1997 EuroBasket, in which the Palau Sant Jordi hosted the final stages.
Barcelona will host half of the games in the knockout stage, including a semifinal.
Below is a list of the confirmed venues which will be used to host games during the 2014
FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Connor Floor will be the official supplier of the basketball courts for each of the six
sites.
Qualification
There will be 24 teams taking part in the 2014 World Cup of Basketball.
After the 2012 Olympics, the continental allocation for FIBA Americas was reduced by one when
the United States won the Olympic tournament, automatically qualifying them for the 2014
World Cup.
Host nation: 1 berth 2012 Summer Olympics: 12 teams competing for
1 berth, removed from that country's FIBA zone
FIBA Asia: 15 teams competing for 3 berths FIBA Oceania: 2 teams competing for 2 berths
FIBA Africa: 16 teams competing for 3 berths FIBA Americas: 10 teams competing for 4 berths
FIBA Europe: 24 teams competing for 6 berths Wild card: 4 berths
Qualified teams As of 21 September 2013, twenty teams have
already qualified for the final tournament in 2014.
To complete the 24-team tournament, FIBA will announce the four wild cards after a meeting
in Barcelona on 3 February 2014; they may announce an initial list of teams that will
be considered after a Buenos Aires meeting on 23–24 November 2013.
The FIBA Central Board decided not to trim the list of wild card applicants on their
Buenos Aires meeting, making all 15 teams eligible to be selected on the February meeting
at Barcelona.
On 1 February 2014, FIBA announced that they allocated the wild cards to Brazil, Finland,
Greece and Turkey.
Suspension of Senegal On the FIBA Central Board meeting in Buenos
Aires, FIBA suspended the basketball federations of Guatemala, Morocco and Senegal indefinitely
"due to their inability to properly function as the governing body for basketball in their
respective countries."
The Senegalese federation was suspended reportedly due to age fabrication in the 2013 FIBA Under-19
World Championship for Men and for Women; the Senegalese federation was dissolved as
a result.
On 2 February, FIBA lifted the suspension on the Senegalese federation after they complied
with all of the requirements imposed by the FIBA, clearing the way for the participation
of its national team in the tournament.
Rule and format changes This will be the first time the new expanded
free throw lane, the restricted arc, and extended three point line take effect in the tournament.
The final round will be held in two arenas: in the Palacio de Deportes de la Comunidad
de Madrid and Palau Sant Jordi, as opposed to a singular arena in 2010.
Also, the ordering of the round of 16 match-ups were changed.
In 2010, a team from Group A or B can meet a team from Group C or D as early in the quarterfinals,
and cannot meet their groupmates until the semifinals.
In 2014, teams from Groups A and B are in one half of the bracket and will play in Madrid,
while teams from Groups C and D are in the other half and will play in Barcelona; teams
from Groups A and B won't meet teams from Group C or D until the final or third-place
playoff, and can meet their groupmates as early as the quarterfinals.
In 2010, the round of 16 games were held in a span of four days, or two matches per day;
in 2014, there would be four games per day, and the round of 16 will be done in two days.
From the semifinals onward, unlike in 2010 where the semifinals were held in one day,
and the third-place playoff and the final on the next day, the semifinals in 2014 will
be held on two days, followed by the third-place playoff the next day, and the final on the
day after, or one game per day.
Finally, the classification round for 5th place was also eliminated.
Draw The draw was held on 3 February 2014 at 19:00
CET at the Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona.
On 2 February, FIBA released the pots on how the teams will be drawn.
"Pot 1" included the top 4 teams in the FIBA World Rankings for men, while the other pots
were grouped via geographical and sporting reasons.
There were no restrictions in drawing teams from pots except for the following:
Spain and United States, as the top 2 teams, are to be drawn at either half of the draw.
Therefore, Spain shall be in Group A, and the USA will be in Group C. The other teams
in the pot will be drawn to either Group B or D.
Finland will not be placed in a group that already has a European team; therefore they
can only be grouped on the group containing the USA or Argentina.
Australia will not be placed in a group that already contains New Zealand, and shall be
placed on a group that already has two European teams.
After a team's group was drawn, another draw follows to determine their position in the
group, and consequently, the order of games that will be played.
In this draw, there are four pots, "Pot A" to "Pot D", each corresponding to each preliminary
round group, containing six numbers; here, the pot corresponding to the drawn group of
a team will be drawn to determine its position in the order of games, such as "A1" to "A6",
for Group A teams.
Finally, after the groupings and order of games have been determined, FIBA shall assign
one group to each preliminary round host city.
Former Spanish international Juan Antonio San Epifanio, Croatia's Dino Rađa, José
Ortiz of Puerto Rico and Angolan Jean-Jacques Conceição assisted in the draw.
Group A, which included European champions France, hosts Spain, and traditional powerhouse
Serbia has been labeled as the "group of death".
The Americans, meanwhile, avoided the "bracket of death" of Groups A and B, by landing in
Group C, netting a rematch of the 2010 final Turkey, which were selected as wild cards,
and a possible late knockout match-up against European runners-up Lithuania.
Squads
Each team has a roster of 12 players; a team may opt to have one naturalized player from
its roster.
The final rosters shall be finalized at the team managers' meeting at the night prior
to the first game.
The final roster of 12 players per team must be taken from a list of at most 24 players
submitted to FIBA two months before the beginning of the championship.
Preliminary round
How teams are ranked: Highest number of points earned, with each
game result having a corresponding point: Win: 2 points
Loss: 1 point Loss by default: 1 point, with a final score
of 2–0 for the opponents of the defaulting team if the latter team is not trailing or
if the score is tied, or the score at the time of stoppage if they are trailing.
Loss by forfeit: 0 points, with a final score of 20–0 for the opponents of the forfeiting
team.
Head-to-head record via points system above Goal average on games among tied teams
Goal average on all group games Drawing of lots
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Final round
Round of 16
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Third place playoff
Final
Marketing Road show and trophy tour
A tour of the Naismith Trophy is currently being held to promote the event, and is scheduled
to end at early August.
The trophy was on display at the 2014 NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans in February,
then the tour visited several countries in Europe and Latin America from April to mid-July.
Asia and Africa legs are expected to be done in late July to early August.
Prior to this, FIBA and the Spanish Basketball Federation held a road show that ran from
2012 to 2014 visiting key Spanish cities, with the some of the final stops being the
host cities, and at Ljubljana, Slovenia during FIBA EuroBasket 2013.
Ball On 30 January, FIBA revealed the official
ball that will be used in the World Cup.
Designed by Molten, it "will be the first time ever a custom designed basketball has
been developed exclusively for an individual event".
Mascots On 31 January, FIBA revealed the mascots of
the World Cup: Olé and Hop.
Olé and Hop's name came from the word "alley-oop"; they are directly inspired from the 2014 World
Cup logo, and will have a tour of host cities leading up to the championship.
See also
2014 FIBA World Championship for Women References
External links Official website