The 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup will be the 18th tournament of the FIBA Basketball
World Cup.
The event will mark a new era for the competition.
Rescheduled from 2018 to 2019, this edition will be the first FIBA World Cup since 1967
that will not occur in the same year as the FIFA World Cup.
Also, the group stage will expand from 24 to 32 teams.
Host selection All FIBA national federations are allowed
to bid for the 2019 Basketball World Cup, but FIBA also added that a federation can
bid on both the 2019 and 2023 World Cups or bid only for 2023 and award hosts for events
at the same time.
Bidding Calendar On 16 April 2014, in a press release, FIBA
announced the bidding calendar for the 2019 Basketball World Cup.
Expression of interest phase April 2014 – Request for Expression of Interest
issued to National Federations 9 June 2014 – Deadline for return of the
Expression of Interest to FIBA
Applicant phase August 2014 – Deadline for the Observer
Programme at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup
September 2014 – Observer Programme on the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain
October 2014 – Deadline for submission of the bid application questionnaire
Candidate phase November 2014 – Announcement of the candidate
nations by FIBA December 2014 – Workshop for Candidates
at Geneva, Switzerland January–February 2015 – On-site inspection
visits April 2015 – Deadline of the submission
of final candidature files May 2015 – Final bid presentations and announcement
of the host nation by the FIBA Central Board
Confirmed bids There are already 2 bidding nations for the
2019 Basketball World Cup, Philippines was the first nation to announce candidacy by
mid-July 2014, while Brazil was also confirmed by September 2014, during the 2014 FIBA Basketball
World Cup in Spain.
Other potential bids Germany and France
After Germany and France withdrew their four-nation bid to host the FIBA EuroBasket 2015, Ingo
Weiss, DBB president, announced an interest of France and Germany to jointly host the
2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania Only Lithuania and Finland have ever qualified
for a World Championship.
Lithuania hosted FIBA EuroBasket 2011.
Latvia hosted the EuroBasket Women 2009.
However, the previous two world championships were held in European countries.
Russia Russia are considering a bid according to
Russian Basketball Federation Commissioner Alexander Krasnenkov.
The country had previously planned to bid for the FIBA EuroBasket 2017, but were instructed
by the Russian government to abandon their plans due to the number of sporting events
already due to take place in the nation around the same time.
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico holds the record of hosting the
most FIBA Americas Championships, at five, all in San Juan in 1980, 1993, 1999, 2003
and 2009.
Venezuela The former minister of sports, Hector Rodriguez
Castro, said that Venezuela hopes to enter the bidding process to host the 2019 FIBA
Basketball World Cup.
Caracas hosted the FIBA Americas Championship in 2013, and organised the World Olympic Qualification
Tournament for men in 2012.
Qualification 32 national teams will compete at the World
Cup: 12 from FIBA Europe, 7 from FIBA Americas, 7 from FIBA Asia / FIBA Oceania, 5 from FIBA
Africa, and the host national team.
In contrast with the 2014 edition, the Olympic champions will not qualify directly, and no
wild cards will be given.
The continental championships will no longer belong to the qualification system for the
World Cup.
Instead, two rounds of continental qualifying tournaments will be held over two years.
The first round of the Americas, Asia / Oceania and Africa qualifiers will feature 16 teams
each, whereas Europe will have 32 teams.
Division A teams will be split in groups of four, to be held in a home-and-away round-robin.
The top three teams in each groups will advance to round two, and last placed teams will play
the best Division B teams to qualify for the next season's Division A.
In round two of the World Cup qualifiers, teams will be split in groups of six, totaling
four groups in Europe and four in the other qualifiers.
Teams will carry over the points from round one, and face another three teams again in
a home-and-away round-robin.
The best teams in each group will qualify for the World Cup.
There are concerns from national associations that they will not be able to play the qualifiers
with National Basketball Association players, which is possible with the continental championships
held in mid-year.
References