Hosts and dates confirmed for FIBA Youth European Challengers 2021

The hosts and dates for the FIBA Youth European Challengers 2021 have been confirmed with teams from a total of 38 National Federations competing across 29 tournaments in the six different competition categories. With the health and safety of all participants the top priority, the revised format to hold smaller tournaments was approved by the FIBA Europe Board in May, ensuring that teams had an opportunity to play competitively this summer. The groups, including the hosts, are as follows: FIBA U20 Women’s European Challengers (July 13-18, 2021) A B C D E Sofia, BUL Sopron, HUN* Konya, TUR Yerevan, ARM** Skopje, MKD** Italy Hungary France Greece Romania Germany Spain Russia Switzerland Slovakia Latvia Czech Republic Belarus Ukraine Luxembourg Belgium Israel Poland Albania North Macedonia Croatia Serbia Turkey Armenia Kosovo Bulgaria Ireland Portugal * This Challenger will be played from July 12-17, 2021. ** These Challengers will be played with five teams in a Round Robin format. FIBA U20 European Challengers (July 20-25, 2021) A B C D E Brno, CZE Tbilisi, GEO Heraklion, GRE* Sopron, HUN** Spain Turkey Slovenia North Macedonia Belarus Russia France Greece Switzerland Hungary Italy Germany Croatia Romania Slovakia Czech Republic Poland Israel Luxembourg Kosovo Portugal Georgia Ukraine Albania Bulgaria Belgium * This Challenger will be played from July 19-24, 2021. ** This Challenger will be played in a different format with eight teams across two groups followed by Semi-Finals and Classification games. FIBA U18 Women’s European Challengers (July 27-August 1, 2021) A B C D E Riga, LAT Klatovy, CZE Heraklion, GRE Sofia, BUL Andorra La Vella, AND Russia Lithuania Spain Slovenia Cyprus Latvia Czech Republic France Ukraine Georgia Germany Hungary Greece Bulgaria Moldova Portugal Turkey Poland Switzerland Malta Croatia Serbia Slovakia North Macedonia Gibraltar Romania Ireland Israel Albania Andorra FIBA U18 European Challengers (August 3-8, 2021) A B C D E  F G  Skopje, MKD Tel Aviv, Israel Konya, TUR Levice, SVK* Tirana, ALB* Spain France Russia Bulgaria Romania Kosovo Luxembourg Serbia Greece Turkey Hungary Ukraine Albania Andorra Croatia Lithuania Slovenia Ireland Slovakia Moldova Gibraltar North Macedonia Israel Latvia Switzerland Malta Germany Estonia Poland Georgia Portugal Czech Republic * These Challengers will be played in a different format with seven teams across two groups – one of three teams and one of four – followed by Semi-Finals and Classification games. FIBA U16 Women’s European Challengers (August 9-14, 2021) A B C D E Helsinki, FIN San Fernando, ESP Matosinhos, POR Piestany, SVK* Tbilisi, GEO France Spain Russia Romania North Macedonia Latvia Hungary Czech Republic Israel Albania Germany Lithuania Poland Ireland Georgia Greece Croatia Belgium Slovakia Malta Finland Serbia Portugal Switzerland Armenia Bulgaria Ukraine Slovenia Luxembourg  * This Challenger will be played from August 11-16, 2021. FIBA U16 European Challengers (August 16-21, 2021) A B C D E  F Skopje, MKD Sofia, BUL Novi Sad, SRB Sofia, BUL* Prishtina, KOS  France  Spain  Turkey  Ukraine Georgia  Kosovo Lithuania Croatia Serbia Portugal Hungary Luxembourg Greece  Latvia Israel Switzerland Cyprus Albania Russia Germany  Slovenia Slovakia Gibraltar North Macedonia Poland Czech Republic Moldova Romania Bulgaria  Belgium Malta *Neutral venue host. This Challenger will be played in a different format with seven teams across two groups – one of three teams and one of four – followed by Semi-Finals and Classification games. With participation in the Challengers voluntary, promotion and relegation has been frozen across Divisions A, B and C with the participating teams split into groups based on their ranking. The top 18 ranked sides were placed into the first three groups of six, with the composition of groups determined by ‘serpentine-style’ allocation, based on the relevant results from past competitions. Minor modifications were necessary for certain categories to adapt to the hosting situation. The tournaments with the top-ranked teams in the FIBA U16 European Challengers 2021 and the FIBA U16 Women’s European Challengers 2021 will be used to qualify teams for next year’s respective global events, as approved by the Board. With FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2022 hosts Spain and FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 hosts Hungary having qualified for the respective events automatically, the tournaments with the U17 World Cup hosts will qualify one additional team. The two remaining tournaments will qualify two teams each.