Cote d'Ivoire's selection as the host country was decided by the Fédération Internationale de Basketball (FIBA) Executive Committee, approved by the Central Board of FIBA Africa, and officially announced in Abidjan on March 23, 2010.[2] Cote d'Ivoire's bid was selected over bids from Madagascar and Nigeria. Madagascar is on hold as a backup host should Cote d'Ivoire not be able to host the championships.[3] This will be the second time that Cote d'Ivoire has hosted the FIBA Africa Championship, after they won the tournament as hosts in 1985.[4]
On April 26, 2011, it was announced that Madagascar would host the tournament in its capital Antananarivo after the political unrest in Cote d'Ivoire put them irreparably behind schedule in outfitting their arenas.[5]
Participants will be sixteen national basketball teams among the 53 FIBA Africa members, determined through qualification processes before the final tournament. These teams will include the host nation, the top four sides at the FIBA Africa Championship 2009 in Libya (including Cote d'Ivoire, which finished second at the 2009 tournament) and the top twelve sides at the 2009 Zone preliminary basketball competitions. Because the qualification process doubles as qualification for the 2010 All-Africa Games, all African nations will compete in qualifying, including those that have previously qualified for the tournament. The following national teams have secured qualification:
FIBA Africa debuted a revised format at the 2009 championship. As of August 2010, FIBA Africa has given no indication that this formation will change for the 2011 event:
The teams will be divided into four groups (Groups A-D) for the preliminary round.
Round robin for the preliminary round; the top three teams from each group advance to the next round.
The top three teams from Groups A and B qualify to Eighth Final round Group E; the top three teams from Groups C and D qualify to Eighth Final Group F. The final scores of all games played in the Preliminary Round are valid for the eighth final round, including games against teams that did not advance beyond the preliminary round.
The top four teams from each of the Eighth final groups advance to the sudden-death quarterfinals. The quarterfinal match-ups will be:
QF1: 1E vs. 4F
QF2: 2F vs. 3E
QF3: 2E vs. 3F
QF4: 1F vs. 4E
The winners in the quarterfinals advance to the semifinals. The match-ups are:
SF1: QFW1 vs. QFW2
SF2: QFW3 vs. QFW4
Winners secure an automatic berth to the 2010 World Championship.
The semifinal teams will play in the sudden-death finals. The match-ups for the finals are:
Bronze medal game: SFL1 vs. SFL2
Winner secures an automatic berth to the 2010 World Championship.
Madagascar
Angola
Tunisia
Cameroon
Nigeria
Togo
Senegal
Mali
Morocco
Central African Republic
Chad
Mozambique
Rwanda
Ivory Coast
Egypt
South Africa
