Hosts and dates confirmed for FIBA Youth European Challengers 2021
MUNICH (Germany) - The hosts and dates for the FIBA Youth European Challengers 2021 have been confirmed with teams from a total of 38 National Federations competing across 29 tournaments in the six different competition categories.
With the health and safety of all participants the top priority, the revised format to hold smaller tournaments was approved by the FIBA Europe Board in May, ensuring that teams had an opportunity to play competitively this summer.
The groups, including the hosts, are as follows:
FIBA U20 Women's European Challengers (July 13-18, 2021)
A | B | C | D | E |
Sofia, BUL | Sopron, HUN* | Konya, TUR | Yerevan, ARM** | Skopje, MKD** |
Italy | Hungary | France | Greece | Romania |
Germany | Spain | Russia | Switzerland | Slovakia |
Latvia | Czech Republic | Belarus | Ukraine | Luxembourg |
Belgium | Israel | Poland | Albania | North Macedonia |
Croatia | Serbia | Turkey | Armenia | Kosovo |
Bulgaria | Ireland | Portugal |
* This Challenger will be played from July 12-17, 2021.
** These Challengers will be played with five teams in a Round Robin format.
FIBA U20 European Challengers (July 20-25, 2021)
A | B | C | D | E |
Brno, CZE | Tbilisi, GEO | Heraklion, GRE* | Sopron, HUN** | |
Spain | Turkey | Slovenia | North Macedonia | Belarus |
Russia | France | Greece | Switzerland | Hungary |
Italy | Germany | Croatia | Romania | Slovakia |
Czech Republic | Poland | Israel | Luxembourg | Kosovo |
Portugal | Georgia | Ukraine | ||
Albania | Bulgaria | Belgium |
* This Challenger will be played from July 19-24, 2021.
** This Challenger will be played in a different format with eight teams across two groups followed by Semi-Finals and Classification games.
FIBA U18 Women's European Challengers (July 27-August 1, 2021)
A | B | C | D | E |
Riga, LAT | Klatovy, CZE | Heraklion, GRE | Sofia, BUL | Andorra La Vella, AND |
Russia | Lithuania | Spain | Slovenia | Cyprus |
Latvia | Czech Republic | France | Ukraine | Georgia |
Germany | Hungary | Greece | Bulgaria | Moldova |
Portugal | Turkey | Poland | Switzerland | Malta |
Croatia | Serbia | Slovakia | North Macedonia | Gibraltar |
Romania | Ireland | Israel | Albania | Andorra |
FIBA U18 European Challengers (August 3-8, 2021)
A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
Skopje, MKD | Tel Aviv, Israel | Konya, TUR | Levice, SVK* | Tirana, ALB* | ||
Spain | France | Russia | Bulgaria | Romania | Kosovo | Luxembourg |
Serbia | Greece | Turkey | Hungary | Ukraine | Albania | Andorra |
Croatia | Lithuania | Slovenia | Ireland | Slovakia | Moldova | Gibraltar |
North Macedonia | Israel | Latvia | Switzerland | Malta | ||
Germany | Estonia | Poland | ||||
Georgia | Portugal | Czech Republic |
* These Challengers will be played in a different format with seven teams across two groups - one of three teams and one of four - followed by Semi-Finals and Classification games.
FIBA U16 Women's European Challengers (August 9-14, 2021)
A | B | C | D | E |
Helsinki, FIN | San Fernando, ESP | Matosinhos, POR | Piestany, SVK* | Tbilisi, GEO |
France | Spain | Russia | Romania | North Macedonia |
Latvia | Hungary | Czech Republic | Israel | Albania |
Germany | Lithuania | Poland | Ireland | Georgia |
Greece | Croatia | Belgium | Slovakia | Malta |
Finland | Serbia | Portugal | Switzerland | Armenia |
Bulgaria | Ukraine | Slovenia | Luxembourg |
* This Challenger will be played from August 11-16, 2021.
FIBA U16 European Challengers (August 16-21, 2021)
A | B | C | D | E | F |
Skopje, MKD | Sofia, BUL | Novi Sad, SRB | Sofia, BUL* | Prishtina, KOS | |
France | Spain | Turkey | Ukraine | Georgia | Kosovo |
Lithuania | Croatia | Serbia | Portugal | Hungary | Luxembourg |
Greece | Latvia | Israel | Switzerland | Cyprus | Albania |
Russia | Germany | Slovenia | Slovakia | Gibraltar | |
North Macedonia | Poland | Czech Republic | Moldova | ||
Romania | Bulgaria | Belgium | Malta |
*Neutral venue host. This Challenger will be played in a different format with seven teams across two groups - one of three teams and one of four - followed by Semi-Finals and Classification games.
With participation in the Challengers voluntary, promotion and relegation has been frozen across Divisions A, B and C with the participating teams split into groups based on their ranking.
The top 18 ranked sides were placed into the first three groups of six, with the composition of groups determined by 'serpentine-style' allocation, based on the relevant results from past competitions. Minor modifications were necessary in certain categories to adapt to the hosting situation.
The tournaments with the top-ranked teams in the FIBA U16 European Challengers 2021 and the FIBA U16 Women's European Challengers 2021 will be used to qualify teams for next year's respective global events, as approved by the Board.
With FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2022 hosts Spain and FIBA U17 Women's Basketball World Cup 2022 hosts Hungary having qualified for the respective events automatically, the tournaments with the U17 World Cup hosts will qualify one additional team. The two remaining tournaments will qualify two teams each.
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