12 IN FRAME FOR OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS

Twelve countries from three continents have expressed interest in hosting the four FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments for Men and Women that will take place in June-July 2016, FIBA gave revealed.

France and Spain are the candidates to host the 12-team Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament running from 13-19 June, which has five places on offer for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

The 12 teams that qualified through the women’s continental championships are: Argentina, Belarus, Cameroon, China, Cuba, France, Korea, New Zealand, Nigeria, Spain, Turkey and Venezuela.

On the men’s side, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Iran, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Philippines, Serbia and Turkey have thrown their hat in the ring to stage the three 6-team Olympic Qualifying Tournaments that will run over the course of six days during the week of 4-10 July. The winning team at each of the three events will qualify for the Men’s Olympic Basketball Tournament.

The 15 teams that have already qualified for the three OQTs through the men’s continental championships are: Angola, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Iran, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Senegal, Serbia and Tunisia.

Three more will join them, depending on the selection of the hosts of the tournaments. If any of Czech Republic, Greece, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Philippines or Serbia are granted the hosting duties for an OQT, then the best non-qualified teams from the respective continent will be asked to express their interest in participating in the OQTs. Germany, Israel and Turkey can only participate in next year’s Olympic qualifiers if they are granted the right to host one of the tournaments.

The main evaluation criteria taken into account by FIBA to determine the hosts of the 2016 Olympic Qualifying Tournaments are. according to FIBA:

Player welfare – best possible conditions for players

Stakeholder experience – first-class event for spectators, teams, media and broadcasters, commercial partners as well as all other stakeholders. This includes venues filled to capacity and the provision of appropriate promotional strategy to achieve this goal.

State-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure – FIBA aims at hosting events in high-level competition venues that meet or exceed its requirements.

Legacy – event must bring benefits for basketball in the country, prestige and credit to the host nation and FIBA, as well as being of support to the strategic ambitions of the entire basketball family.

Commercial model – the event must be based on sound commercial and promotional initiatives and be financially successful.

The deadline to submit candidature files is Wednesday 11 November, following which an evaluation of all bids will take place.