By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
In front of 8.000 Chinese fans and basketball officials, the draw for the FIBA World Cup 219 was held and the 32 teams which will compete for the trophy learned their first phase opponents.
The first round groups are the following and the first round games are scheduled to be played between the 31st of August and the 5th of September.
GROUP A (Beijing): Cote D’Ivoire, Poland, Venezuela, China
GROUP B (Wuhan): Russia, Argentina, Korea. Nigeria
GROUP C (Guangzhou): Spain, Iran, Puerto Rico, Tunisia
GROUP D (Foshan): Angola, Philippines, Italia, Serbia
GROUP E (Shanghai): Turkey, Czech Republic, USA, Japan
Group F (Nanjing): Greece, New Zealand, Brazil, Montenegro
Group G (Shenzhen): Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Jordan
Group H (Dongguan): Canada, Senegal, Lithuania, Australia
The top two teams from each group will qualify for the 2nd Round and the bottom two teams from each group will play the Classification Round for places 17-32.
The results of the three games from the 1st Round carry over to this 2nd Round. Every team plays against the two teams in their group that they did not face in the 1st Round, for a total of 16 games. (2 games per team, 4 games per group) between the 6th and the 9th of September.
Group I (Foshan): 1st and 2nd from Group A, 1st and 2nd from Group B
Group J (Wuhan): 1st and 2nd from Group C, 1st and 2nd from Group D
Group K (Shenzhen): 1st and 2nd from Group E, 1st and 2nd from Group F
Group L (Nanjing): 1st and 2nd from Group G, 1st and 2nd from Group H
The top two teams from each 2nd Round group will qualify for the Quarter-Finals and the road to the final is the following. The bottom two teams from each group are eliminated and ranked in places 9-16 according to the Official Basketball Rules. There were be also classification games for the teams from the 17 to 32 position between the 6th and the 9th of September.
