ISTANBUL, Turkey (FIBA Basketball World Championship for Women) - Here is the procedure for the Official Draw of the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women taking place on Saturday 15 March at 6:30pm local time (5:30pm GMT +1/CET).

- 16 teams will participate in the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women. All teams have been classified on the basis of playing quality, as well as geographical principles, with teams from the same continent being evenly distributed in four pots of four teams each.

• Pot 1: Australia, France, Spain and the USA.
• Pot 2: Belarus, Czech Republic, Serbia and Turkey.
• Pot 3: Brazil, Canada, China and Cuba.
• Pot 4: Angola, Japan, Korea and Mozambique.

Teams will be picked from these pots and placed into four groups – A, B, C and D.

- There are four other pots, called A, B, C and D, with each one containing numbers 1 to 4. These numbers will determine the position of each team within their Group and the subsequent order of games. The position of a team placed in Group A is determined by the number drawn from Pot A, Group B is from Pot B, Group C from Pot C and Group D from Pot D.

- The following principles will be applied:
• Pot 1: The group that contains the USA shall play in Istanbul. For example, if the USA are drawn in Group B, then Groups A and B shall be played in Istanbul, with Groups C and D in Ankara. The four groups (A, B, C and D) will be assigned to the two cities (Istanbul or Ankara) after the teams from pot 1 have been picked.
• Pot 2: As the host team, Turkey shall play in Ankara. Therefore, after the above mentioned example with Groups A and B being placed in Istanbul, Turkey shall be drawn in Group C or D and the remaining three teams shall then be drawn in the other three groups.
• Pot 3: In order to balance the geographical principles, no FIBA Americas team can be placed in the same group as the USA. Therefore, China shall be placed in the same group as the USA and the other three teams shall be drawn as normal.
• Pot 4: In order to balance the geographical principles, no FIBA Asia team can be placed in the same group as China. Therefore, in accordance with the above example where the USA and China are in Group B, Korea and Japan cannot be in that group and must be drawn in Group A, C or D. The other two teams will be drawn as normal.

Click here for more information on the competition system of the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women.

The Official Draw of the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women will be streamed live on livebasketball.tv and on youtube.com/fiba.

FIBA

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About the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women

The 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women will take place in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey from 27 September to 5 October.

The FIBA World Championship for Women was first held in 1953 and is the biggest women's national team basketball competition.

Go to www.fiba.basketball/turkey2014 to find out more.