Uganda has been seeded in Group A alongside Cape Verde, Mali and Nigeria for the first round of 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification for the FIBA Africa region. The draws were held on Tuesday, 31st August 2021.
The 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification for the FIBA Africa region, will begin in November 2021 and will conclude in February 2023. The process will determine the five African teams that will participate at the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
Also known as Silverbacks, this will be Uganda’s second appearance in the continental qualification round of the World Cup.
Last time out (2019), Uganda trailed in their group of the qualifiers then, picking only one win against Rwanda in one of legs. Uganda’s group then (B), again had Mali and Nigeria who all completed doubles over Silverbacks.
However, this time round, Uganda will fancy coming up against Cape Verde having beaten them 101-98 in the 2021 FIBA AfroBasket Qualifiers in November last year.
In Africa, the first qualification round has 16 teams divided into four groups of four. The teams in question are the ones that qualified for the ongoing FIBA AfroBasket in Kigali, Rwanda.
In the second round, 12 teams comprising of the best three from each group in the first round will be divided in two groups of six teams where the top two in each group plus third placed team qualify of the World Cup.
The 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup will be the 19th tournament of the FIBA Basketball World Cup for national men’s basketball teams.
It is expected that there will be 32 teams in the tournament. As announced on December 9, 2017, this will be the first World Cup to be hosted by multiple nations: the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia from August 25 to September 10, 2023. It is the first World Cup to be hosted in Indonesia, and the second to be hosted in both the Philippines and Japan since they first hosted the tournament in 1978 and 2006, respectively.
The tournament will serve as qualification for the 2024 Summer Olympics, where the top two teams from each of the Americas and Europe, and the top team from each of Africa, Asia and Oceania, will qualify alongside the tournament’s host France.
Spain are the defending champions, having beaten Argentina in the 2019 final.
The 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifiers Africa Groups:
*Group A – Cape Verde, Mali, Uganda, Nigeria
*Group B – South Sudan, Cameroon, Tunisia, Rwanda
*Group C – Ivory Coast, Guinea, Central Africa Republic, Angola
*Group D – Kenya, Senegal, Egypt, DR Congo
