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.