By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
As FIBA announced officially on Thursday, 15 countries have applied for a wildcard in order to compete in the upcoming FIBA World Cup 2014 in Spain. Nine of them are coming from Europe, which is expected to gain two out of four open spots in the tournament.
The list of the applicants includes Nigeria from Africa, Brazil, Canada and Venezuela from Americas, China and Qatar from Asia and nine teams from Europe. They are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Poland, Russia and Turkey.
The announcement for the four selected teams will be made in FIBA’s Central Board meeting on the weekend of 1-2 February 2014 in Barcelona, Spain, one day before the draw for the tournament. However it’s more than possible that a short list of candidates will be announced on the weekend of the 23-24 of November. As FIBA clarified “no more than three national teams from one FIBA Zone can receive the wild cards” and here are the criteria for the final selection.