Greece tip-off in FIBA World Cup Qualifying
Greece tip-ff in the new FIBA World Cup qualifiers and AGONAsport.com breaks down the format of the qualifying process and how Greece can qualify for the 2019 FIBA World Cup.
Greece will participate in Group H of the first qualifying round along with Great Britain, Israel, and Estonia with high hopes of qualifying for the second qualifying round. Greece will travel to Great Britain for their opening match on Friday and will host Israel two days later in the second round of group play. Due to the conflict between the Euroleague and FIBA, coach Skourtopoulos will be without many of Greece’s normal starters as they will be participating with their club teams in the Euroleague.
Greece will be a clear favorite to advance to the next round as three of the four teams will progress to the second qualifying round. The Ethniki will look to record as many wins in the first qualifying as the results from this qualifying round carry over to the next qualifying round.
Below is the breakdown of the new FIBA World Cup qualifying format:
FIBA Europe has been allocated 12 berths at the World Cup. All 45 FIBA Europe teams will take part in qualifying and will consists of the following stages:
Pre-Qualifiers: The 13 teams that did not participate in Eurobasket 2017 will begin the pre-qualifiers. They are separated into three groups of three teams and one group of four teams. The top two teams from each group, total of 8 teams, will qualify for the First Qualifying Round.
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First Round: The 24 teams that participated in Eurobasket 2017 (includes Greece) along with the 8 winners of the Pre-Qualifiers will participate in the 32-team First qualifying round. The teams will be organised into 8 groups of 4 teams each and the top 3 teams of each group will qualify for the Second qualifying round, a total of 24-teams.
Second Round: The 24 teams from the First qualifying round will be organised into 4 groups of 6 teams each, with results carrying over from the First qualifying round. The top 3 teams from each group will qualify for the World Cup, a total of 12 teams.
