Russia was in the third basket of the selection for the World Cup

Sugar Mizzy November 22, 2021

FIBA has announced the draw for the qualifying competitions for the 2022 Women’s World Cup, which will take place on 23 November in Geneva.

16 national teams will be divided into four independent tournaments: two of them will be held in Belgrade, one each in Osaka and Washington.

Participation in the 2022 World Cup is guaranteed to the host country (Australia) and the Olympic champion Tokyo (USA). The teams of these countries will play in qualifying without competition: in qualifiers with their participation, the three remaining teams will compete for two tickets to Sydney. Of the other two quartets, the best teams will get to the final tournament.

All rating participants are divided into baskets in accordance with the FIBA world rating:

Basket 1. USA, Australia, Canada, France.

Basket 2. Belgium, China, Japan, Serbia.

Basket 3. Belarus, Russia, Brazil, Nigeria.

Basket 4. Puerto Rico, Korea, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mali.

The three qualifications will be automatically distributed among the hosts in the respective cities. Thereafter, the draw will alternate between the other 13 teams, starting with Pot 1 to Pot 4.

To comply with the principle of geographical balance (no more than teams from one FIBA zone in each qualifying zone), the following restrictions are imposed on the basis of the draw:

From the 1st basket, Australia cannot fall into the same group with Japan, and France with Serbia;

From the 2nd basket, Belgium cannot get into the group with France, and China – with Australia;

From the 3rd basket, one of the two European teams (Belarus, Russia) must get into a group where there are no other representatives of its continent (France, Belgium, Serbia), and Brazil cannot be in the same four with the USA or Canada;

From Pot 4, Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot get into the group with other European teams; at the same time, the Mali national team will automatically fall into the same four with Nigeria, so that all continents are guaranteed to be represented in the final tournament of the 2022 World Cup.

During tomorrow’s drawing of lots, each team will be selected a sequence number from 1 to 4, defining the schedule of its games. The draw will begin at 13:30 Moscow time.

The qualification for the 2022 World Cup will take place from 10 to 13 February next year. The final tournament will be played in Sydney from 22 September to 1 October.