Germany, Lebanon, Lithuania and Russia awarded wild cards for 2010 FIBA World Championship

Bob Elphinston and Patrick Baumann (FIBA.com)

13-12-2009 03:55

During today's meeting of the FIBA Central Board - the highest executive body of the International Basketball Federation - the following teams were awarded wild card entries to next year's FIBA World Championship in Turkey:

Germany
Lebanon
Lithuania
Russia

The decisions were made in accordance with the criteria outlined by the FIBA Central Board. The wild card system was first introduced for the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan, following the decision to increase the number of teams from 16 to 24.

With the four wild cards joining the 20 qualified teams, the following teams go into the hat for the draw that will take place on Tuesday 15th December (11:30AM local time / 10:30AM CET) in Istanbul.

The draw will be covered live on turkey2010.fiba.com.

The 2010 FIBA World Championship will be played in Turkey in the cities of Ankara, Kayseri, Istanbul and Izmir between 28th August and 12th September 2010.