REYKJAVIK (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019) - Iceland coach Craig Pedersen believes FIBA's Competition System 2017+ is going to be a big hit with the fans, and the players.

Over a four-year cycle from 2017 through 2021, national teams will play regular home and away games to qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 and the FIBA Continental Cups 2021.

The fans, first of all, will be able to see their favorite players on a regular basis.

"A lot of times during the summer, people are on vacation and maybe it's not the main time to be playing basketball," Pedersen said to FIBA.com. "I would think that playing throughout the year would keep a flow, a rhythm in people having an interest in seeing the game."

There are also big pluses for the athletes themselves.

"I also know some of the players have commented on it and they like the idea because if they play for a team that has gone on a long run into springtime, late May and sometimes into June, they've got to turn around and go to national team training camp a couple of weeks later," Pedersen said. "And then, when the national team is over, they go right back to their club training camp and that continues over a long cycle. That can be pretty hard.

"This way (under the FIBA Competition System 2017+), they get ready with their club and they're already in shape for their national team. They're more in a flow with their bodies. They think it can be a positive thing and I think a lot of the players are ready to try it."

Had Iceland, which qualified last summer for FIBA EuroBasket 2017, not made it to Europe's flagship event, the team would have had to make it through a pre-qualifying stage this summer just to reach the World Cup qualifying stage.

Iceland clinched a spot in World Cup qualifying when they beat Belgium

So last summer was cause for a double celebration. Iceland will not only be in Helsinki this year for the Group Phase of the FIBA EuroBasket, but they will also begin hosting some of the most important games in their basketball history later in the year.

The first window for World Cup qualifying games will be 20-28 November and the second will be 19-27 February of 2018. The third window will run from 25 June to 3 July, the fourth 10-18 September, the fifth 26 November to 4 December and the last 20-28 February in 2019.

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Pedersen says he and everyone in Icelandic basketball understood the significance at the time of the second straight EuroBasket qualification.

"We were actually aware of that, that we would get into the (World Cup) qualifying automatically instead of having to go through the back door so that was very important for us as well," he said. 

Iceland didn't win a game at FIBA EuroBasket 2015, yet they were very good, and very exciting. They pushed Germany, Italy and Turkey very close. The game against the Turks, in fact, went to overtime.

Many of those same Icelandic players will be at the EuroBasket in Helsinki, where Iceland will play their Group Phase games.

Pedersen says veterans will have added value for the World Cup qualifying campaign. Time to prepare players for each game will be in shorter supply than when national teams came together for several weeks ahead of a continental tournament, but the seasoned campaigners will already understand many of the tactics and game-plans and also have a familiarity with their teammates.

"We'll have to find a way to handle it and deal with it (shorter preparation time)," he said. "But yes, with the veterans, if something doesn't work out, they've got a good idea of how to fix things. The experience factor and a lot of them have been playing together for so long, they know each other extremely well. With the national team, they're teammates already and they can adapt pretty quickly. Hopefully those older guys will still want to play and with the change, maybe they will."

First things first, however. Iceland is gearing up for a second straight EuroBasket appearance and that promises to be fun.

FIBA