LC
Years ago
FIBA to Introduce Competition Changes: World Cup
FIBA, the sport's governing body is set to introduce a new international competition that is sure to whet the appetities of basketball enthusiasts around the globe.
Their strategy includes expanding the 3on3 (3x3) format, but from my perspective, more importantly looking at adopting a FIFA (soccer) style qualification for what will is now being touted as the FIBA World Cup!
In summary (in part replicated from Paul's post on OzHoops):
-The new Basketball World Cup to be expanded to field 32 teams
- Qualification to be home and away series (similar to FIFA)
- Calender to run Olympics 2016, zone championship 2017, women's world champs 2018, men's world cup 2019
- Likely to mean that qualification to the Olympics will be primarily through the World Cup
Importantly under the new system of competition, there can be up to 1,600 games played by up to 130 national federations over a period of 18 to 24 months. This is double the number of national teams that are currently involved in the qualifying process for FIBA's leading international tournaments. And for us, this means seeing the Boomers and opals play regular home and away games every year - something we only get to see against NZ when qualifying for WC's and Olympics.
In addition, as the strength of international teams is based in Europe, often some fo the best teams miss out on the WC's and Olympics due to lack of places. Under the proposed changes, FIBA Basketball World Cup will consist of 32 teams, thereby allowing for good representation for every continent. For example, you could have 12-14 European teams that qualify for FIBA’s flagship event. To me this ensures the best of the best which is what the World cup should be about.
FIBA also propose to hold the men's event a year following FIFA's flagship event. The women's event will be played in a different year to help them gain stand alone exposure.
Mainini: calendar, system of competition and 3x3 our biggest priorities
Bring it on.