Beijing time 20 1 April 1 (Spanish local time 201April1) news, FIBA held a meeting in Barcelona (official Weibo data), at which it was announced that Turkey, Brazil, Finland and Greece won the 20 14 men's world cup. This means that China, who only won the fifth place in the Asian Championships, missed the first Men's Basketball World Cup (formerly known as the World Championships) for the first time.
So far, all the 24 teams participating in the 20 14 Men's Basketball World Cup have come into being. They are-
Host: Spain
London Olympic champion: the United States
Top six in the European Championship (except Spain): France, Lithuania, Croatia, Slovenia, Ukraine and Serbia.
Top four in the Americas Championship: Mexico, Puerto Rico, Argentina and Dominica.
The top three African championships: Angola, Egypt and Senegal.
Top three Asian championships: Iran, Philippines, South Korea.
Australia, New Zealand, Oceania before the championship.
Four wild cards: Turkey, Greece, Brazil and Finland.
China men's basketball team missed the World Basketball Championship held in Athens after 1998 (predecessor of the World Basketball Cup), and missed the World Cup again after 16. 1997 Asian Championship, Zhang Bin led the national team to defeat Riyadh and led the men's basketball team to hand over the tickets for the World Championships to South Korea.
The distribution principle of teams participating in this year's Spanish Men's Basketball World Cup is: 20 teams are produced by intercontinental champions (including host and Olympic champions), and the remaining 4 teams play wild cards. However, the China men's basketball team, which missed the semi-finals in the 20 13 Asian Championship and thus lost the qualification to directly advance to the World Cup, was once regarded as a popular team for wild cards.
The "card issuing rules" concerning sports, economy and management announced by FIBA earlier are all in line with China, while the popularity of basketball in China, the world ranking of the teams and the fact that many enterprises in China are FIBA partners are also "bonus factors".
However, in addition to meeting the above requirements, teams applying for wild cards also need to pay a huge "registration fee". European media revealed at least 830,000 euros (about 7 million RMB), and Italy announced earlier that it would give up its wild card due to cost problems. It is reported that the Basketball Association hopes to have sponsors to bear the expenses, but the sponsors can't afford it, which is also considered as one of the reasons why the men's basketball team gave up the wild card in advance.
In addition, the conflict between the World Cup and the 20 14 Asian Games is another reason for the men's basketball team to give up. According to the schedule, the Men's Basketball World Cup will be held from August 30th to September 14, and the Asian Games will be held from September 19 to 10/4. According to the regulations of FIBA, the team applying for wild cards must send the strongest team to participate in the World Cup, and China, which lost the 20 13 men's basketball championship, is eager to regain the Asian championship in South Korea. It is difficult to send a strong enough team in such a short time, and worrying about young players losing confidence is also one of the reasons.
It is worth mentioning that chinese basketball association has no official response to why the men's basketball team gave up the wild card. According to informed sources, there have been differences of opinion within the Basketball Association on the issue of applying for wild cards. On the one hand, they hope that the China men's basketball team can get valuable exercise opportunities, on the other hand, they are afraid of losing too badly and encountering greater shelling.
The "wild card system" of the World Cup began in the 2006 Men's Basketball World Championships, but this controversial system is likely to come to an end. According to the previous decision of FIBA, there will be no wild card system in the next Men's Basketball World Cup (20 19) to ensure the best teams to participate.