FIBA chooses sites for 2020 Olympic qualifying tournaments

MIES, Switzerland— Canada, Croatia, Lithuania and Serbia have been selected as hosts for the qualifying basketball tournaments that will determine the final four men’s spots available in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Those tournaments will take place from June 23-28. Each of those four nations will host a six-team event, where the winner will earn a spot in the Tokyo Games.

Besides the host nations for the qualifiers, the 20 other nations that will complete for those last four spots are Slovenia, Angola, Senegal, Mexico, Uruguay, China, Korea, Greece, Russia, Brazil, Italy, Puerto Rico, Turkey, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, New Zealand and Tunisia.

Japan automatically qualified for the men’s 12-team Olympic field as the host nation. The U.S., Argentina, Nigeria, Spain, France, Iran and Australia clinched Olympic spots at the World Cup this summer by finishing as the best teams in their respective FIBA regions — the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania.

The women’s Olympic field will be filled by four different four-team qualifying tournaments, which will be held from Feb. 6-9 in Belgium, France, Serbia and possibly China. The Chinese hosting rights are contingent on that country advancing out of a pre-qualifying tournament currently taking place in New Zealand. If China falters there, FIBA will choose another nation to host.

Japan and the U.S. have already qualified for the Olympic women’s field.

The draws for all eight qualifying tournaments will be held Nov. 27.