Slovenia, Israel to co-host FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2023

The FIBA Europe Board has named Slovenia and Israel as the co-hosts of the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2023.

Tel Aviv in Israel and the Slovenian cities of Koper and Celje will each host a part of the Group Phase, while Slovenian capital Ljubljana will provide the stage for the Final Phase.

The Board voted for the hosts in an extraordinary session, the 14th meeting of the term of office 2019-2023, which took place via videoconference on Friday, June 11, 2021.

The session was chaired by FIBA Europe President Turgay Demirel, with FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis and FIBA Executive Director Europe Kamil Novak also in attendance.

Both Slovenia and Israel will be hosting the showpiece event of European Women’s basketball for the first time in their history.

The 39th edition of the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket will be the fourth in competition history to follow the hugely successful co-hosting formula, that was first implemented in 2015.

Romania and Hungary were the joint hosts of the 35th edition that year, Serbia and Latvia reiterated the partnership structure in 2019, while Spain and France will be hosting the 38th edition from June 17 to 27, 2021.

The Board also deliberated about a proposal to modify the competition system for the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2023 Qualifiers, which had been put forward by all three candidates, Slovenia, Israel and Austria, to host the 2023 edition of the flagship event.

After taking into consideration the rationale of the Austrian Basketball Federation, the Israeli Basketball Association and the Slovenian Basketball Federation, the Board decided for the national teams of the two FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2023 hosts to participate in the Qualifiers for the tournament.

The three national federations had all expressed the wish to be included in the Qualifiers in order to better prepare their respective national teams for the Final Round of the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2023, as it would have been very difficult for them to arrange warm-up games during the qualification windows.

The Draw for the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2023 Qualifiers will take place in August 2021, with action tipping off in November.