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AMMAN — With Round 1 Asian qualifiers for the 2027 FIBA World Cup having concluded, teams have about 6 weeks before the more challenging Round 2 starts end of August.
Iran led Group C in which Jordan came second, Syria third while Iraq failed to advance. Jordan beat Iraq 106-67 in their final match but it was their performance against Iran in which they lost 67-49 that alarmed officials as to their chances in Round 2. Earlier, they beat Iraq 108-59, Iran 73-60, and Syria twice 100-48 and 74-59.
With results from the first round carried over, the 12 qualifying teams – the top three teams from each of the four groups - advanced to Round 2 where they were pooled into two groups of six: Teams from Groups A and Group C converged to form Group E, while teams from Groups B and D formed Group F. Now, each team will play home-and-away against the three coming from the other group over three windows (August and November 2026, and February 2027) with two games per team being played in each window.
There will be eight qualifiers to the World Cup, the seven best ranked Asian teams from this round, as well as Qatar who qualify automatically as host. If Qatar is not ranked among the top four in their group the fourth place teams from groups 'E' and 'F' will be ranked against each other to decide the final qualifier.
Jordan will be up against challenging Group E opponents including Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines with Iran and Syria also in the group while Group F includes Lebanon, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and China. Teams eliminated in Round 1 were Guam, Chinese Taipei, Iraq and India.
There is not much time for Jordan’s squad to regroup, finalise the lineup and decide on an incoming new coach for Round 2 which is expected to be more challenging for the squad who regrouped very late with former coach Wisam Sous recalled to oversee the team for the past three matches as Jordan hopes to make it to their third consecutive and fourth overall World Cup after first qualifying in 2010.
