PR N°40 - Seedings for 2010 World Championship announced by FIBA

ISTANBUL (FIBA World Championship) – FIBA today announced the seedings for the draw of the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey. The draw, that will take place at the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul on Tuesday, 15th December at 11:30am (10:30 CET), will determine the four groups of six teams for the first round of the tournament.

The seedings for FIBA competitions always follow the same basic principles, which are as follows:

• The groups of the first round are balanced in terms of sporting competitiveness.
• The draw ensures that in each group, there is a balanced representation from the five continents. In the case of the draw for the 2010 FIBA World Championship, that will result in having a maximum of 3 European teams in any one group and a maximum of 2 Americas teams in any one group.

The draw will be carried out according to the following seedings:

Line 1 USA, Argentina, Spain, Greece
Line 2 Serbia, Slovenia, France, Turkey
Line 3 Brazil, Puerto Rico, Canada, Australia
Line 4 Croatia, Russia, Lithuania, Germany
Line 5 New Zealand, China, Iran, Angola
Line 6 Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Ivory Coast

The draw for the 2010 FIBA World Championship can be followed live on turkey2010.fiba.com.

About FIBA

FIBA (www.fiba.basketball), the world governing body for basketball, is an independent association formed by 213 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. It is recognised as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Its main upcoming events are the 2010 FIBA World Championships for Men and Women, to take place in Turkey and in the Czech Republic respectively. This summer, the 2009 Continental Championships determined the champions of each continent and also determined the teams from each continent that qualified for Turkey and the Czech Republic.