JAKARTA (Indonesia) - The FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Qualifiers have concluded. Now that there’s only one more final stage to decide the remaining teams to play in the main event, let’s take a look once again at what these teams are playing for.

Stepping up to the FIBA Basketball World Cup

If playing at the FIBA Asia Cup wasn’t enough already, qualifying through to make it to the tournament itself already has its premium benefits.

All 16 teams that qualify to play in the biggest stage of Asia & Oceania basketball in the Asia Cup are also automatically qualified for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Asian Qualifiers as well.

This means that Lebanon, Bahrain, Iran, Kazakhstan, Jordan, Syria, Korea, China, Australia, and New Zealand are already moving one step forward towards their hopes and dreams of claiming the World Cup later in 2023.

Indonesia, in particular, will be have a bit more at stake. While the Asia Cup 2021 hosts are also co-hosts of World Cup 2023, Indonesia also have to achieve the target of reaching the Quarter-Finals of the Asia Cup to claim direct qualification to the World Cup.

Meanwhile, Japan and the Philippines are already qualified for the World Cup 2023 as the other two co-hosts of the event.

Japan is one of the host countries of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023

They will also be joined by the three remaining teams that will qualify from the Qualifying Tournament for third ranked teams between Chinese Taipei, Guam, India, Saudi Arabia, and Palestine.

If any team in the region aims at contending for the World Cup, they will have also have to get through to compete at the Asia Cup first - which these teams have done.

Glory

Across the long history of the Asia Cup dating back to 1960, there have been a total of 29 champions. Each of those titles were hard earned by the teams that claimed the trophy in each competition.

There will be exciting storylines for this upcoming Asia Cup 2021, whether it’s if Australia can repeat, if China can add on to their lead with most Asia Cups of All-Time, if any of the other past champions can return to claim the throne, or if there will be a new champion crowned.

However, whichever storyline unravels, the most important thing is that the last team standing will claim the bragging rights to being the undisputed Asia Cup champion for the next 4 years.

Australia are the reigning champions of the region since 2017

These teams have made it all the way through different hurdles through the past couple of years and now is the time to fight for the ultimate trophy in Asia & Oceania.

Glory for the nation is what is one the line.

FIBA