Details of Europe’s new international calendar, post-2016, have emerged with confirmation that Great Britain’s men will not have a competitive schedule next summer.
With the first round of qualifying scrapped as expected, the qualification for EuroBasket 2017 – which will have 24 teams – 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, to be played on Saturdays ands Wednesdays.
It means GB men, who missed out on the 2015 Championships, will have no scheduled fixtures with cash-strapped British Basketball unlikely to organise friendlies due to the costs involved. It is thought a short GB Futures programme is under consideration.
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.
Qualification for the finals 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 board of FIBA Europe also 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 2015 event.
2015 YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP MEN VENUES
MEN | VENUE | COUNTRY | DATES |
U20 Division A | Lignano Sabbiadoro | Italy | 7 – 19 July 2015 |
U20 Division B | Székesfehérvár | Hungary | 9 – 19 July 2015 |
U18 Division A | Volos | Greece | 23 July – 2 August 2015 |
U18 Division B | TBD | Austria | 23 July – 2 August 2015 |
U18 Division C | TBD | TBD | TBD |
U16 Division A | Kaunas | Lithuania | 6 – 16 August 2015 |
U16 Division B | Sofia | Bulgaria | 6 – 16 August 2015 |
U16 Division C | TBD | TBD | TBD |
2015 YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP WOMEN VENUES
WOMEN | VENUE | COUNTRY | DATES |
U20 Division A | TBD | Spain | 2 – 12 July 2015 |
U20 Division B | Podgorica | Montenegro | 2 – 12 July 2015 |
U18 Division A | Celje | Slovenia | 30 July – 9 August 2015 |
U18 Division B | Bucharest | Romania | 30 July – 9 August 2015 |
U18 Division C | TBD | TBD | TBD |
U16 Division A | Matosinhos | Portugal | 13 – 23 August 2015 |
U16 Division B | TBD | TBD | 13 – 23 August 2015 |
U16 Division C | TBD | TBD | TBD |
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