The Board of FIBA Europe has approved the EuroBasket 2015 host countries’ choice of partner Federations for the Group Phase of the competition.
France, who have two venues (Montpellier and Lille) have partnered with Finland; Germany (Berlin) partnered with Turkey; while Croatia (Zagreb) and Latvia (Riga) chose neighbours Slovenia and Estonia respectively.
The four hosts (Croatia, France, Germany and Latvia) were allowed to choose a ‘partner federation’ based on commercial/marketing criteria, as a one-off decision, applicable only to the EuroBasket 2015 event because of the exceptional circumstances created by the relocation of the original event in Ukraine.
Details on how the choice of partners will affect the upcoming draw of the Group Phase groups and the seedings for the Draw will be announced by FIBA Europe prior to the Official Draw which will take place in Disneyland, Paris on 8 December 2014.
The Board of FIBA Europe approved a range of other proposals by its commissions on Friday:
- EuroBasket 2017 will be played with 24 teams.
- The qualification for EuroBasket 2017 will be played in August-September 2016 (31 August – 17 September) with home and away games, following the conclusion of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil.
- The games should be played on Saturdays and Wednesdays.
- EuroBasket Women 2017 will be played with 16 teams and the competition system shall mirror that of the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women, effectively shortening the length of the tournament to nine or ten days.
- The qualification for EuroBasket Women 2017 will be in the format of home and away games, with windows during the club season in autumn and winter of 2015-2016 and autumn 2016.
- The bid process to choose the host of EuroBasket Women 2017 is expected to start in early 2015 with a decision to be taken by June 2015.
Source: FIBA Europe
