BARCELONA, Spain (FIBA Basketball World Cup) – Here is the procedure for the Official Draw of the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup taking place on Monday 3 February at 7pm (CET).
– The 24 teams have been classified on the basis of the FIBA Ranking Men as well as geographical principles with teams from the same continent being evenly distributed in six teams pots. Teams will be picked from these pots and placed into the four Preliminary Round groups – A, B, C and D.
• Pot 1: Argentina, Lithuania, Spain and USA. This pot consists of the top four teams in FIBA’s Men Ranking (#1 USA; #2 Spain; #3 Argentina; #4 Lithuania).
For the next five pots, the sequence does not reflect the strength of the teams:
• Pot 2: Angola, Egypt, Senegal and Finland.
• Pot 3: Iran, Korea, Philippines and New Zealand.
• Pot 4: Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
• Pot 5: Brazil, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
• Pot 6: Australia, France, Greece and Turkey.
There are four other pots, called A, B, C and D. Each one contains numbers 1 to 6. These numbers will determine the position of each team within their Preliminary Round group and the subsequent order of games. The position of a team placed in Group A is determined by the number drawn from Pot A, Group B is from Pot B, Group C from Pot C and Group D from Pot D.
Three of the teams pots are special:
• Pot 1: As per the competition system, the teams ranked 1 (USA) and 2 (Spain) in the FIBA Ranking Men will be placed in either half of the draw. Therefore Spain will be in Group A and the USA in Group C. Argentina and Lithuania will then be drawn into either Group B or Group D.
• Pot 2: In order to balance the geographical principles, Finland shall not be placed in a Group that already contains a European team and therefore will be drawn in a Group with the USA or Argentina.
• Pot 6: in order to balance the geographical principles, Australia shall not be placed in a Group containing New Zealand and shall be placed in one of the Groups that already contain two European teams.
– When all teams have been drawn and placed in each Group, FIBA shall assign one group to each city.
Click here for more information on the competition system of the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
The Official Draw will be streamed live on livebasketball.tv and on youtube.com/fiba.
About the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup
The first-ever FIBA Basketball World Cup will take place in Spain from 30 August to 14 September 2014.
The Preliminary Round will be played in Bilbao, Gran Canaria, Granada and Seville (30 August-4 September). The Final Round will take place in the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona and in the Palacio de los Deportes of Madrid (6-14 September).
The FIBA Basketball World Cup, known from 1950 until 2010 as the FIBA World Championship, is the flagship event of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).
The winners of the FIBA Basketball World Cup get to celebrate their crowning moment by holding aloft the Naismith Trophy, named after the inventor of basketball, Dr James Naismith.
Go to www.fiba.com/spain2014 to find out more.
Source: FIBA