Eurobasket 2011 will now feature 24 teams
FIBA Europe announced yesterday that Eurobasket 2011 in Lithuania will be expanded to 24 teams instead of 16 after approval of the proposal made by the Lithuanian Basketball Federation to the FIBA Europe Executive Committee.
The move sees the changes to the competition format take place two years earlier than expected and effectively render the last month of qualifying games unecessary. With only 25 teams competing in Division A, it means only one of them will miss out on a place at Eurobasket.
FIBA Europe Secretary General Nar Zanolin commented:
“The expansion is meant to follow the rapid development of European Basketball. Proof for this development can be found at the FIBA World Championship where 9 of the 10 participating European Teams advanced from the Preliminary Round to participate in the Eight-Finals.”
FIBA Europe President Olafur Rafnsson added:
“After it was clear that EuroBasket 2013 will be played with 24 teams we are now even more pleased that the expansion could be carried out two years earlier. European Basketball is stronger than ever and now the time has come to stay abreast of changes and, together with our Lithuanian friends, organise the biggest and best ever EuroBasket.”
Thoughts?
I’m not a fan of this move to be honest. Changing the format of a competition when the competition is already under way is not cool in my opinion. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Agree totally Sam. This decision should have been made before the qualifying games started. It’s annoying to think that the likes of Hungary and Bosnia will get a ticket to Eurobasket after GB worked so hard to that we’re better than them.
Presumably in the future, if all qualify, there won`t be any qualifying rounds. Therefore the British basketball fans won`t get to see a series of fantastic games like we have this summer. If that`s the case it will be a massive retrospective step, when Fiba and the Olympic committee want us to drive the public awareness forward. There`s a lack of joined up thinking if this happens.
There will still be qualifying games. The idea is to merge Divisions A and B, so you will have more teams competing to qualify but also more spots available, giving a system similar to what they have in football.
Personally I don’t think it’s a good idea. One of the good things about having Division A & B is how evenly matched the teams in each division are; almost anyone can beat anyone else on a given night. Put the two together and you won’t have that any more.
It is all about generating revenue for FIBA Europe with TV rights etc. Add 8 more countries into the final will bring a lot of more money for them.
FIBA Europe are likely to modify the additional qualification round and allow those in Div B to compete to select the final 8 teams
Rendering their entire summer programme of qualifying games pointless; What a smart move!
As has been pointed out, it’s clearly all about TV rights and additional advertising revenue and whilst I understand sport at this level is business as much as anything else, to have compromised the integrity of the entire competition speaks volumes of those in charge. I’ll remain proud in the knowledge that we made it there through hard work and frankly should GB now not deemed to be worthy of an Olympic place I’ll be even more outraged than I would’ve been previously! At least we’ll have a decent seeding to show for our achievements huh…
I don’t mind the change to 24 teams – one positive effect will be giving everyone a slightly longer tournament as opposed to the 2009 format where a quarter of the teams played three games on three consecutive games, which doesn’t really help the feel of these tournaments, and might also persuade the British media to take it a bit more seriously. However would have been a better idea if they didn’t retrospectively turn this summer’s games in to a load of exhibition matches. Another concern is that there could be a lack of international basketball in a given summer, which could kill a team like GB’s momentum entirely.
If this does involve merging EuroBasket Division B in to the top tier, what will happen to Division C? If Division C gets merged in, presumably the Scottish and Welsh national teams would be withdrawn from the international stage as they could wind up playing the GB national team, which would effectively mean GB having three teams. FIBA Europe wouldn’t be happy with that, surely.
A single tier system could lead to lopsided games in the qualifying stage (imagine Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Pops et al going to San Marino), which might not be a good idea. Let’s see how FIBA Europe decide on qualification for 2013.
Will expanding to 24 teams ensure better standard games overall, or result in more poorer standard games? In the recent FIBA W.C there were 24 teams but not that many quality games. Will it not just allow poorer standard teams into what is hoped to be a top quality competition?
It will be interesting to see some more teams to play in Eurobasket 2011, Lithuania. But the level of this championship will decrease, because of big amount of unprofessional teams. But for me it will be interesting to see georgia national team, because I have never seen this team playing in such a championship.