2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup The 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup will be the 18th tournament of the FIBA Basketball World Cup for men's national basketball teams. The tournament will be hosted in China and it will mark a new era for the competition as described. Rescheduled from 2018 to 2019, this edition will be the first FIBA Basketball World Cup since 1967 that will not occur in the same year as the FIFA World Cup, but a year following the latter. Also, the group stage will expand from 24 to 32 teams. The top 8 teams, including Japan as
History of the FIBA Basketball World Cup continued to improve with both qualifying for the second group stage. After the 2002 FIBA World Championship ushered in a new era of parity, FIBA made the decision to expand the 2006 tournament to 24 teams for the first time since the failed expansion in 1986. In announcing the expansion, FIBA cited the "increased level of basketball around the world and the increasing number of competitive teams at the highest level." FIBA also removed the second group stage; instead, the top four teams in each group of six would move on to a 16-team, single-elimination knockout stage. The host and