2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification (Europe) explained

Continent:	Europe
2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup
Subtitle:	European Qualification
Teams:	39
Website:	European qualifiers website European pre-qualifiers website
Prevseason:	2019
Nextseason:	2027

The 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification for the FIBA Europe region, began in February 2020 and concluded in February 2023. The process determined the twelve teams that would qualify for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

On 9 December 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency initially handed Russia a four-year ban from all major sporting events, after RUSADA was found non-compliant for handing over manipulating lab data and lying to investigators. WADA prohibited the use of the Russian flag and anthem at major international sporting events.^[1] However, the Russia national team could still enter qualification, as the ban only applied to the final tournament to decide the world champions. Russia appealed the ruling to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS),^[2] which ruled in favour of WADA on 17 December 2020, but cut the ban from four to two years.^[3] Had Russia qualified, its players would have been able to use its name, flag and anthem at the World Cup, as a result of the nation's two-year ban expiring on 16 December 2022.^{[3] [4]} However, Russia was later expelled from the tournament due to its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.^[5]

Format

FIBA Europe was allocated 12 berths at the World Cup. In total, 39 FIBA Europe teams took part in the qualification tournament. The qualification consisted of the following stages:

• Pre-Qualifiers
  • First round: Eight teams that did not advance to the EuroBasket 2022 qualifiers took part.
  • Second round: The four teams were joined by the eight teams that were eliminated from the EuroBasket 2022 qualifiers. Teams that advanced from the previous round were assigned to Pot 3, while teams eliminated from EuroBasket 2022 qualifiers were assigned to Pots 1 or 2, according to FIBA rankings. Austria withdrew before the round and was replaced by Luxembourg.
• Qualifiers
  • First round: 24 teams that qualified for EuroBasket 2022 and eight teams that advanced from Pre-Qualifiers were organized into eight groups of four. The top three teams of each group qualified for the second round.
  • Second round: The top 24 teams from the first round were organised into four groups of six, with results carried over from the first round. The top three teams of each group qualified for the World Cup.

Pre-qualifiers

See main article: 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification (Europe) – Pre-qualifiers.

Teams that did not advance to the EuroBasket 2022 qualifiers took part in the pre-qualifiers round.

First round

Group B

Second round

Group F

Qualifiers

See main article: 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification (Europe) – Qualifiers.

First round

Group H

Second round

Group L

Statistical leaders

Player averages

Category	Player	Team	Average
Points			20.7
Rebounds			10.0
Assists			7.4
Steals			2.3
Blocks			2.2
Minutes			35.9
Efficiency			22.8

Team averages

Category	Team	Average
Points		88.1
Rebounds		41.6
Assists		21.4
Steals		10.5
Blocks		4.3
Efficiency		100.8

External links

• Official website
• Tournament summary

Notes and References

1. News: Russia banned for four years to include 2020 Olympics and 2022 World Cup . BBC . 9 December 2019 . 9 December 2019.
2. News: WADA files official request with Court of Arbitration for Sport to resolve RUSADA dispute . . 9 January 2020 . 18 December 2020.
3. News: Russia banned from Tokyo Olympics and 2022 World Cup after Cas ruling . BBC . 17 December 2020 . 18 December 2020.
4. News: Russia banned from using its name, flag at next two Olympics. 17 December 2020. ESPN. Associated Press. 18 December 2020.
5. Web site: Russian teams, officials are no longer allowed to participate in FIBA competitions until further notice.