Amman ready to host FIBA Women’s Asia Cup

AMMAN — The 2021 FIBA Women’s Asia Cup (Division A) — the 29th edition of the tournament, tips off in Amman on Monday, the first time it is held in an Arab country.

The event which will run up to October 3, was set to be hosted by India and serves as the Asian and Oceania qualification for the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Australia for which the top four teams will advance. 

The same eight teams from the last edition qualified for this years’ tournament, listed by their final position. Since no Division B tournament was held in the 2019 edition, the last finishing team was not relegated to this edition’s Division B. 

During the Group phase, eight participating teams in Division A were divided into two groups of four teams each. Ttitleholders Japan lead Group A alongside record winners South Korea, New Zealand and India while Group B includes China, Australia, the Philippines and Chinese Taipei.

Jordan will also host the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup 2021 – Division B in November 2021.

The FIBA Women’s Asia Cup is an international basketball tournament which takes place every two years for women’s national teams from FIBA Asia region. It was known as the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Championship until 2001, and the FIBA Asia Women’s Championship until 2015.

Among Arab teams Syria took part in 1986 (finishing 9th), Jordan in 1995 (finishing 11th) and Lebanon in 2001 (finishing 13th).

Japan are titleholders and five-time winners, South Korea 12-time winners, China 11-time winners.

In addition to the Women’s Asia Cup Divisions A &B, Jordan will again host the FIBA Asia U-18 Championship for Women in 2022, which qualifies the winners to the FIBA U-19 Women’s Basketball World Cup. Jordan took part in FIBA Asia U-18 in 1996 and finished 8th, and hosted the event in 2014 and finished 11th.

In the FIBA Asia U-16 Championship for Women, Jordan played in 2013 and finished 11th.

In men’s events, this year, Jordan qualified to the FIBA Asia Cup — the continent’s leading basketball tournament after an unbeaten streak in qualifiers hosted in Amman. The FIBA Asia Cup 2021 will be played in Jakarta, Indonesia, but is now rescheduled to July 2022, right after the window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asia qualifiers. 

Jordan’s best showing at the FIBA Asia Cup (previously called FIBA Asia Championship) was third in 2009 and runner-up in 2011 when it reached the final for the first time in the country’s history, but lost the chance of qualifying to the 2012 Olympic Games after losing the final 70-69 to China. Jordan then played the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) but were eliminated after losing to Puerto Rico and Greece.

On the world scene, Jordan previously reached the FIBA Basketball World Cup — the world’s premier basketball competition twice — in 2010 and 2019. The basketball squad was the first and only Jordanian team to actually reach a World Cup in a team sport in 2010 and 2019 alongside the junior men’s team in 1995.