The Road To Beijing 2008 Continues To Heat Up While EuroBasket's Final Phase Approaches

GENEVA (2008 Beijing Olympics) - While eight teams (Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Russia, Slovenia and Spain) will be facing as of tomorrow the final stage of their battle for the Old Continent's crown in EuroBasket 2007, the road to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games continues to heat up.

Current World Champion Spain being already qualified for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the 7 other teams which will be still in competition in the quarter-finals of the EuroBasket will fight to get 2 direct berths for the next Olympic Games. In addition, 4 other European teams will take part in the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men that will take place in mid-July 2008.

The following 12 teams are entitled to take part in the Olympic Tournament for Men in 2008:

2 teams directly qualified:

- The host nation: CHINA
- The Gold medalist of the 2006 FIBA World Championship: SPAIN

7 teams directly qualified through the Continental Championships:
- Africa (1 team): ANGOLA
- Americas (2 teams): USA and ARGENTINA
- Asia (1 team): IRAN
- Europe (2 teams): to be determined during the final stage of EuroBasket 2007
- Oceanía (1 team): AUSTRALIA

3 teams qualified through the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men:

The World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men will be played in mid-July 2008, in a place to be determined, and will decide the final 3 berths for Beijing 2008.

The best placed non-qualified teams for the Olympic Games from the 5 Zones will be entitled to participate in the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men. It will be a 12-team tournament which will feature: 2 participants from Africa (Cameroon and Cape Verde), 3 from the Americas (Puerto Rico, Brazil and Canada), 2 from Asia (Lebanon and Korea), 4 from Europe (to be determined) and 1 from Oceania (New Zealand).

Should any of the above-mentioned invited team(s) not accept the invitation, the next best non-qualified team(s) from the same Zone will be entitled to participate.

The organizer and venue of the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men will be decided amongst the candidatures received from the 12 participant teams during the Central Board meeting that will take place in Chicago (USA) on 8th and 9th December 2007.

The bidding process to stage the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men will start as of next week, once the EuroBasket has finalized and therefore once all 12 participating teams in this event are known.

About FIBA

FIBA (www.fiba.com), the world governing body for basketball, is an independent association formed by 213 National Federations of basketball throughout the world. It is recognised as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Its main upcoming events are the 2007 FIBA Zone Continental Championships that will qualify for Beijing 2008, the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (to take place in the summer of 2008) and the FIBA World Championships for Men and Women, held every four years. The 2010 FIBA World Championship will be played in Turkey.

source : fiba.com