Bahrain’s qualifying schedule set for FIBA World Cup

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain will begin their campaign in qualifying for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 against continental giants Iran towards the end of this year.

The game schedule for the first round of qualification was released yesterday by basketball’s global governing body, FIBA. The Bahrainis play their Iranian opponents on November 26 as part of the first window of action in Group D.

 The nationals then take on Iran in the return game three days later on November 29. Bahrain’s next two fixtures will be in the second window, scheduled for next year.

Their third game is against Syria on February 24 and then they go against Kazakhstan on February 27. The final window in July of 2022 will include their last two games of the first round, against Syria on July 1 and Kazakhstan on July 4. For this first round of qualifiers, 16 teams from Asia/ Oceania are divided into four groups of four teams to play in home-and-away games. The three best-placed teams from each group will advance to the second round.

There, the 12 remaining nations will be divided into two groups of six. Each team will face teams from another group, with the results from the first round being carried over.

The top three teams from each group, along with World Cup co-hosts Japan and the Philippines, will qualify.

However, if the third co-hosts Indonesia manage to qualify as hosts by making the quarterfinals of the next FIBA Asia Cup, only the top two teams from each group, along with the best third-place team, will qualify.

The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 qualifiers, which also feature competition in Africa, the Americas and Europe, are set to determine a 32-nation field in the main competition.