Poland added as EuroBasket 2025 host country / News - Basketnews.com

Poland became the fourth country to host first-round games of the 2025 EuroBasket, after Latvia, Cyprus and Finland.

Credit: Soeren Stache/dpa Credit Soeren Stache/dpa

In March this year, the heads of FIBA ​​Europe announced that Latvia (Riga), Cyprus (Limassol) and Finland (Helsinki) will co-host the 2025 EuroBasket. A fourth co-host was missing.

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The main reason was that one of the countries applying for the organization of this tournament was Ukraine. Russia, whose candidacy was actually canceled on February 22, and Hungary also tried to organize the tournament.

A few weeks after the war broke out, the heads of the European federation decided to give themselves and the devastated country some time "until November" to make the final decision.

However, the Management Board of FIBA ​​Europe met and decided to name Poland as the final host country of the upcoming tournament. The tournament's final stage will take place in Arena Riga, Latvia.

All hosts automatically get a chance to appear in the final tournament, but with the current system, they are taking part in the qualifiers anyway. This means that their results are included in the table and may affect the situation of other teams.

Due to the failure in the first qualifying round of the 2023 World Cup, which ended in July, Poland started the 2025 EuroBasket qualifying round from the initial stage. And on top of that, they also lost the first home game to Croatia. However, with them being the co-hosts, the results of the next FIBA windows in November and February will not matter anymore.

Poland hosted the entire EuroBasket in 2009. The split into four co-hosts was introduced in 2015.

Per the official announcement:

"The FIBA Europe Board voted on Saturday in favor of Poland's candidacy to host one of the groups of FIBA EuroBasket 2025, becoming the fourth co-host of the 42nd edition of Europe's flagship event.

The Polish basketball federation presented its candidacy at an extraordinary session of the Board that took place in the German capital on the eve of the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 Final and 3rd-Place Game in Berlin.

FIΒΑ Europe President Turgay Demirel chaired the session of the Board, with FIBA President Hamane Niang, FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis and FIBA Executive Director Europe/FIBA Europe Secretary General Kamil Novak also in attendance.

The Polish Minister of Sport and Tourism, Kamil Bortniczuk, and Polish Basketball Federation President Radoslaw Piesiewicz headlined the Polish delegation in Berlin. The Polish city which will serve as the venue will be confirmed at the November session of the FIBA Europe Board.

In March, Latvia was awarded the Final Phase of the competition as well as one of the groups, while Cyprus and Finland were named hosts of one group each in the Group Phase.

"We introduced the multiple-host model for FIBA EuroBasket 2015 and it has proved a resounding success in every edition since then, culminating in the 2022 edition that concludes tomorrow here in Berlin," commented Mr. Demirel.

"There were already three exceptional hosts in place for the 2025 tournament and it is the view of the Board that the Polish candidacy made for the ideal final addition to this winning team."

Ukraine was a frontrunner to co-host FIBA EuroBasket 2025 but, in its spring session, after taking into consideration the difficult circumstances of the country, the Board decided to continue discussions with the country while simultaneously working on back-up plans as an alternative.

FIBA EuroBasket 2025 is set to take place in September of that year."

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