MANILA – Gilas Pilipinas has been drawn into Group A of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers after the group draw at the FIBA head office in Lausanne, Switzerland on Tuesday.
Just like in the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers, Gilas and South Korea will be in one group again, this time being joined by New Zealand and India in Group A.
Group B, however, offers something interesting for basketball fans as a “group of death” has been formed there with Australia, China, Japan, and Chinese Taipei in it.
Despite being geographically part of the East Zone, Indonesia has been placed in the West Zone, joining Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia in Group C.
The other west group, Group D, consists of Iran, Kazakhstan, Syria, and Bahrain.
For the first round of the qualifiers, which will begin with an 11-day window from November 20 to 30, teams will play a double round-robin tournament within their groups.
The next windows have been scheduled from February 2 to March 1 and June 27 to July 5 in 2022.
The top three teams per group will move on for the second round of the qualifiers scheduled for the windows of August 22 to 30 and November 7 to 15 next year and February 20 to 28, 2023.
The top two teams from each second-round group plus the best third placer will join Gilas and Japan as Asia’s representatives to the FIBA World Cup that the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia will co-host.
However, if Indonesia fails to enter the FIBA Asia Cup quarterfinals next year, the other third placer will qualify. (PNA)
Source: Philippines News Agency
