The Philippines, Japan and Indonesia, the three hosts of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) 2023 Basketball World Cup, have chosen their preferred teams for the group stage matches to be played in their home countries.
The FIBA Board of Directors, after consulting with the host countries, confirmed that the USA will play in the Philippines, Slovenia will go to Japan and Canada will go to Indonesia. Both Slovenia and Canada are guaranteed to qualify for the World Cup, while the USA will fight to qualify for the tournament in the final window of the qualifiers.
While each host nation may choose a preferred team for business reasons, their selection will have no effect on the integrity of the event or the drawing process.
As with the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 hosted by China, the host Philippines for the group stage and final stage for this tournament will be placed in the first bag in the draw. After the final qualifying window in February 2023, the top ranked teams in the FIBA Men’s World Rankings will join the Philippines in the first bag. For this reason, the USA and the Philippines will take part in two different groups of the quartet that will take place in the Philippines.
Choosing Slovenia, which is 7th in the ranking, Japan and Slovenia will play their group stage matches in Okinawa, where the two groups will compete.
Canada will play in Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta and two of the top 8 teams from the FIBA Men’s World Rankings will join them in the two groups in Indonesia.
The full FIBA 2023 Basketball World Cup drawing guidelines will be determined in February after the 6th window of the qualifiers has been completed and all 32 participating teams have been determined. These principles will be based on the FIBA Men’s World Rankings and geographical guidelines.
The draw for the FIBA 2023 Basketball World Cup will be held in Manila on April 29.
This tournament will be the second World Cup with 32 teams in the World Cup. Matches will be played in four groups and two arenas in Manila, and two groups each in both Okinawa and Jakarta, and the event will begin on August 25, 2023.
