FIBA World Championship - Qualification

Qualification

The Basketball World Cup has used various forms of qualification throughout its history. The first five tournaments were held in South America and participation was dominated by teams from the Americas. At the first tournament, FIBA intended for the three Olympic medalists to compete, plus the host Argentina and two teams each from Europe, Asia, and South America. However, no Asian team was willing to travel to the event, so six of the ten teams were from the Americas. European powerhouse Soviet Union later made their first appearance in 1959 after missing the first two events.

In the tournament's early years, only Europe and South America had established continental tournaments, so participation in the tournament was largely by invitation. Later, Asia added a continental championship in 1960, followed by Africa in 1962, Central America in 1965, and Oceania in 1971, As a result of these changes, qualification became more formalized starting with the 1967 tournament. In that year, the Asian champion received an automatic berth in the tournament, joining the top European and South American teams. In 1970, the African and Oceanian champion each received a berth, while the Centrobasket champion and runner-up were each invited. For most of these years, the tournament host, defending World Champion, and top Olympic basketball tournament finishers also qualified for the event.

Since 1970, qualification has continued to be based on the continental competitions and the Olympic tournament. The only major change came in the 1990 FIBA World Championship, when the tournament started taking qualifiers from the newly redesigned FIBA Americas Championship rather than from North, Central, and South America individually. After the tournament expanded to 24 teams in 2006, the tournament has allocated qualification as follows:

• FIBA EuroBasket (Europe) – 6 berths
• FIBA Africa Championship (Africa) – 3 berths
• FIBA Asia Championship (Asia) – 3 berths
• FIBA Americas Championship (North, Central, and South America) – 4 berths
• FIBA Oceania Championship (Oceania) – 2 berths
• Defending Olympic Champion – 1 berth
• Host team – 1 berth
• FIBA-selected wild cards – 4 berths

Each of the five continental championships also serves as qualification for the Olympics, so all are held every two years. The year immediately preceding the World Championship is used to determine the berths at the tournament. For example, all of the berths at the 2010 FIBA World Championship were determined by continental championships held in 2009. After the first twenty teams have qualified, FIBA then selects four wild card teams, based on sporting, economic, and governance criteria, as well as a required registration fee from each team to be considered by the FIBA board. Of the four wild cards, only three can come from one continental zone. In each of the two tournaments that the wild card system has been in place, FIBA has selected the maximum three European teams to compete in the event.