The preliminary round, which is due to start on August 30, will be played in four cities; Bilbao, Gran Canaria, Granada and Seville, before the tournament moves to Barcelona and Madrid for the final rounds, with the decider set for the Spanish capital on September 14.

Four groups of six will compete in the preliminary rounds, which run until September 4, with each group being staged in four different locations.

Group A will be based in Granada and will see hosts Spain begin their campaign against Asian champions Iran at the 9,000 capacity Palacio Municipal de Deportes, following the matches between European champions France and wildcard entries Brazil, and two-time world champions Serbia who take on Egypt.

Seville's Palacio Municipal de Deportes, which hold just over 7,000 spectators, will host Group B, which gets underway with Croatia taking on the Philippines, Puerto Rico versus Argentina and Greece facing Senegal.

Defending champions the United States will get their campaign underway against wildcards Finland at the 16,000 capacity Bizkaia Arena in Bilbao - the base for Group C - which also sees Ukraine start against Dominican Republic and New Zealand take on another wildcard entry, Turkey.

African champions Angola will get Group D underway as they take on South Korea, while Australia take on Slovenia and Mexico face Lithuania, with all group games taking place at the Gran Canaria Arena in Gran Canaria, which holds just over 7,000 spectators.

The preliminary rounds will see all teams play each other once across six days of action, with September 1 a rest day for groups C and D, while groups A and B will sit out September 2.

Spain and defending champions the United States will be among the sides likely to be challenging for the title this year ©Getty Images



The top four teams in each group at the end of the preliminary round will advance to the 16-team knockout round, which gets underway on September 6 at the 16,000 capacity Pauli Saint Jordi Arena in Barcelona and the 14,000 capacity Palacio de los Deportes de la Comunidad in Madrid.

Quarter-finals will be held on September 9 and 10 with the semi-finals scheduled for the 11 and 12.

The bronze medal match will take place on September 13, before the final is held on September 14 in Madrid.

Hosts Spain and defending champions the US, who have contested the last two Olympic Games finals, cannot face each other until the gold medal match in Madrid.

The full competition schedule can be viewed here.

Tickets for the FIBA Basketball World Cup went on sale last July and in February this year, tournament organisers released venue and finals passes for sale.

Venue passes can be purchased from as low as €103.20 (£94/$141,000) for 15 games, while finals passes can be bought by anyone who has already purchased a venue pass for any of the six host cities, and start at €115 (£84/$158,000) for the two games.

Day passes will go on sale on May 5 and the session tickets on July 1.

For details on purchasing passes and tickets for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup, click here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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