2026 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup

2026 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup – Draw
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2026 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup
Basketball-Weltmeisterschaft der Frauen 2026
	#WeOwnTheGame!
Tournament details
Host country	Germany
City	Berlin
Dates	4–13 September
Teams	16 (from 4 confederations)
Venues	2 (in 1 host city)
	← 2022 2030 →

The 2026 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup will be the 20th edition of the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for women's national basketball teams, sanctioned by FIBA. The tournament will be hosted in Berlin, Germany, from 4 to 13 September 2026.^[1] This is Germany's second time hosting after previously organising the event in 1998, after being awarded the hosting rights in spring 2023.

Sixteen teams will take part in the tournament, four more than the previous edition but returning to the same number as was between 1990 and 2018. The Germans automatically qualify as hosts. Qualifiers will be decided via a mixture continental champions and teams progressing from the qualifying tournaments.

United States are the four-time defending champions.

Host selection

The following countries expressed interest in hosting:^[2]^[3]^[4]

During its Central Board meeting in Manila, Philippines, on 28 April 2023, FIBA announced that Germany will host the upcoming World Cup in 2026.^[5] It will be second Women's World Cup to be held in the Germany after the 1998 tournament.

The senate (city-state government) in Berlin decided to allocate €6 million to the event.^[6]

Qualified teams

Expansion

On 25 March 2022, following a review of the current FIBA women's basketball system, FIBA expanded the World Cup back to 16 teams after reducing the teams to 12 teams in 2022.^[7] The expansion brings the numbers of teams that qualified back to the same count as the World Cups between 1990 and 2018.

Qualification

Germany as the hosts automatically qualified for the tournament in April 2023. Each winner of the continental championship will qualify. All other teams play in a qualifying tournament after finishing as the top teams during their regional tournament. A total of 24 teams played in those qualifying tournaments for the remaining eleven spots.^[8]

Qualified teams

Of the sixteen teams who qualified, nine took part in the previous edition. For the first time since 1990, no teams will debut at this edition. Of the seven returnees, Italy and Hungary come after long absences after last appearing in 1994 and 1998 respectively. Hosts Germany also return after their only appearance was hosting in 1998. Czechia makes an appearance after missing out on the previous two editions. Spain and Turkey progressed this time round after failing to advance in 2022.

Of the absentees, the most notable absentee is 2022 fourth place finishers Canada, who failed to qualify for the first time since 2002 after missing out on a three way tie in the Qualifying Tournaments. 2022 debutants, Bosnia and Herzegovina, alongside Serbia, couldn't qualify after their sporadic appearances in 2022.

After the Qualifying Tournaments, the regional team split is as follows: eight from Europe, four from Asia and Oceania and two from Africa and Americas. Europe's eight teams breaks their record of most European teams at a single World Cup (previously held by 1957 with seven); while on the other hand, Americas' two representatives (Puerto Rico and United States) marks the lowest amount of teams at the World Cup from the region since 1967.

Mali qualified for a second successive edition for the first time, while Belgium and Puerto Rico continue their qualification streaks since their debuts in 2018. South Korea and United States continue their longest active qualification streaks with 17.

Qualification	Host	Dates	Vacancies	Qualified
Host nation	N/A	28 April 2023	1	Germany
Winner of EuroBasket Women 2025	Brno / Hamburg Piraeus / Bologna	18–29 June 2025	1	Belgium
Winner of 2025 Women's AmeriCup	Santiago	28 June – 6 July 2025	1	United States
Winner of 2025 Women's Asia Cup	Shenzhen	13–20 July 2025	1	Australia
Winner of 2025 Women's Afrobasket	Abidjan	26 July – 3 August 2025	1	Nigeria
Qualifying Tournaments	Wuhan	11–17 March 2026	3	China Mali Czechia
	San Juan		3	Italy Spain Puerto Rico
	Istanbul		3	Hungary Turkey Japan
	Lyon		2	France South Korea

Summary of qualified teams

Team	Qualification method	Date of qualification	Appearance(s)				Previous best performance^[A]	WR^[B]
Team	Qualification method	Date of qualification	Total	First	Last	Streak	Previous best performance^[A]	WR^[B]
Germany	Host nation	28 April 2023	2nd	1998		1	Eleventh place (1998)	TBD
Belgium	Winner of EuroBasket Women 2025	29 June 2025	3rd	2018	2022	3	Fourth place (2018)	TBD
United States	Winner of 2025 Women's AmeriCup	6 July 2025	19th	1953		17	Champions (Eleven times)^[a]	TBD
Australia	Winner of 2025 Women's Asia Cup	20 July 2025	17th	1957		16	Champions (2006)	TBD
Nigeria	Winner of 2025 Women's Afrobasket	3 August 2025	3rd	2006	2018	1	Eighth place (2018)	TBD
France	Qualified through Qualifying Tournaments	14 March 2026	12th	1953	2022	7	Third place (1953)	TBD
Spain		14 March 2026	8th	1994	2018	1	Runners-up (2014)	TBD
China		15 March 2026	12th	1983	2022	12	Runners-up (1994, 2022)	TBD
South Korea			17th	1964	2022	17	Runners-up (1967, 1979)	TBD
Italy			6th	1967	1994	1	Fourth place (1975)	TBD
Mali		17 March 2026	3rd	2010	2022	2	Eleventh place (2022)	TBD
Czechia			4th	2006	2014	1	Runners-up (2010)	TBD
Turkey			3rd	2014	2018	1	Fourth place (2014)	TBD
Japan			10th	1964	2022	5	Runners-up (1975)	TBD
Hungary			6th	1957	1998	1	Fifth place (1957)	TBD
Puerto Rico			3rd	2018	2022	3	Eighth place (2022)	TBD

Venues

The tournament will be played in Berlin across two venues.^[9]

The main venue is the Berlin Arena. This arena will host two groups and the entire knockout stage. The venue previously hosted the 2024 European Men's Handball Championship and the latter stages of EuroBasket 2022. It was the first venue to host three EuroLeague Final Fours. The venue has also held many high-profile non-sporting events.^[10]^[11]
The secondary arena in the Max-Schmeling-Halle. It will host two groups in the first round. The venue previously hosted the 2007 World Men's Handball Championship, plus the finals of the 2013 Women's European Volleyball Championship, 2023 IHF Men's U21 Handball World Championship, plus two CEV Champions League finals in 2015 and 2019.^[12]

Berlin	Berlin	Berlin
Berlin Arena		Max-Schmeling-Halle
Capacity: 14,000		Capacity: 9,000

Preparations

On 13 March 2026, for the second edition in a row, Spanish basketball legend, Pau Gasol, was the global ambassador for the tournament.^[13]

Marketing

Logo

The logo was unveiled on 12 August 2024.^[14] According to FIBA, the logo is supposed to depict "Berlin's status as a united metropolis that loves to party and celebrate".^[15]

Mascot

The mascot, "Bearlina", was revealed during the HipHop Ball at Red Town Hall on 15 November 2025. Bearlina is a bear (which is featured on the coat of arms of Berlin), whose design represents the lifestyle of the host city, including elements of punk, hip hop, graffiti art, and the design of the basketball used for FIBA competitions.^[16]

Draw

The draw took place at on 21 April 2026 at 18:00 CET at the Kraftwerk in Berlin.^[17]^[18]^[19] The draw was hosted by American actress, Brittney Elena, and German presenter, Matthias Killing [de]. Australian basketball legend, Lauren Jackson, German handball player, Stefan Kretzschmar and breakdancer Jilou were the guests and assisted with the draw. The draw started with, in order, pots 1, 2, 3 and 4 being drawn, with each team selected then allocated into the first available group alphabetically. The position for the team within the group would then be drawn (for the purpose of the schedule). Before the draw, hosts Germany were pre-drawn into Group A. Regarding restrictions, a maximum of two teams from Europe are allowed in each group, while a maximum of one team from Africa, Americas and Asia/Oceania will be drawn in each group.

Seeding

The seeding was revealed on 16 April 2026.^[20] The seeding was based on the FIBA Women's World Ranking as of 1 April 2026.

Pot 1
Team	Pos
Germany (H)	11
United States	1
France	2
Australia	3

Pot 2
Team	Pos
China	4
Belgium	5
Spain	6
Nigeria	8

Pot 3
Team	Pos
Japan	10
Puerto Rico	13
Italy	14
South Korea	15

Pot 4
Team	Pos
Turkey	16
Czechia	17
Mali	18
Hungary	19

Draw results

Group A
Pos	Team
A1	Japan
A2	Spain
A3	Germany (H)
A4	Mali

Group B
Pos	Team
B1	Hungary
B2	South Korea
B3	Nigeria
B4	France

Group C
Pos	Team
C1	Belgium
C2	Australia
C3	Puerto Rico
C4	Turkey

Group D
Pos	Team
D1	United States
D2	Czechia
D3	Italy
D4	China

Schedule

Schedule^[21]
Round	Gameday	Date
Preliminary round	Gameday 1	4 September 2026
	Gameday 2	5–6 September 2026
	Gameday 3	7 September 2026
Final round	Qualification to quarterfinals	8 September 2026
	Quarter-finals	10 September 2026
	Semi-finals	12 September 2026
	Final Third place	13 September 2026

Preliminary round

All times are local (UTC+2).^[22]

Group A

Pos	Team	Qualification
1	Japan	Quarterfinals
2	Spain	Qualification to quarterfinals
3	Germany (H)	Qualification to quarterfinals
4	Mali

First match(es) will be played: 4 September 2026. Source: FIBA
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head results; 3) Points difference; 4) Points scored.
(H) Hosts

4 September 2026

Host selection

Qualified teams

Expansion

Qualification

Qualified teams

Summary of qualified teams

Venues

Preparations

Marketing

Logo

Mascot

Draw

Seeding

Draw results

Schedule

Preliminary round

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Knockout stage

Notes

See also

References

External links