Explainer: Draws for FIBA World Cup Qualifiers

MANILA, Philippines — Next week, the draws will be finalized for the FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifiers.

Four years after the Philippines hosted the World Cup, the 2027 edition will be played in Qatar. It is the first FIBA World Cup to be held in the Middle East and North Africa region.

But while the showpiece is still more than two years away, preparations are now about to begin, starting with the qualifiers draw set on May 13.

Gilas Pilipinas is among the Asian teams that will try to punch a ticket to the tourney through the qualifiers.

How tough will the road be for the Philippines and the other countries? Will there be a group of death? What are the chances of that happening?

-Asian Qualifiers-

According to FIBA, there will be 16 teams that will be placed into eight spots, based on a combination of geographical principles and the FIBA World Rankings.

The Philippines is in Pot 5, together with South Korea.

The federation said that Pots 1, 3, 5 and 7 will feed Groups A and B. Pots 2, 4, 6 and 8, on the other hand, will feed Groups C and D.

So by the looks of it, the Philippines has a chance of being grouped with either Australia or Japan (Pot 1), New Zealand or China (Pot 3) and Taipei or Guam (Pot 7.)

Of those six teams, World No. 7 Australia, World No. 21 Japan, World No. 22 New Zealand and World No. 30 China are ahead of the Philippines in rankings. Gilas is ranked 34th in the world and seventh in Asia.

Pot 2 is composed of Iran and Lebanon, pot 4 is made up of Jordan and Saudi Arabia, pot 6 has Syria and India, while pot 8 has Qatar and Iraq.

Qatar, as the host of the World Cup, will automatically qualify to the second round and the World Cup itself.

-Windows-

The 16 Asian teams will go through a total of six windows of qualifiers. There will be two rounds – the first round, where there will be four groups of four teams, and the top three teams from each group will advance to the second round.

In the second round, the results of the games will be carried forward.

Countries that will advance will then be put into two new groups, and will compete against the teams that they have not yet faced in their group on a home-and-away basis.

And the three best placed teams in the two groups, as well as the best fourth-placed team aside from Qatar, will advance to the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

The qualifiers draw will be held on May 13th. FIBA global ambassador and three-time Olympic champion Carmelo Anthony will be on stage to perform the draw.

The draw could be watched live on the FIBA websites and the FIBA YouTube channel.