With the recent successes of Iran, Jordan, and Lebanon, should FIBA create Middle East region?

That’s currently what is being proposed in our forum (discuss).

The proposal is to move four current European basketball nations, Israel, Turkey, Azerbijan, and Armenia, out from FIBA Europe and combine them with the three current Asian subregions – West Asia, the Gulf, and Middle-Asia.

FIBA Mideast would consist of the following 21 national teams: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbijan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.

From there, Oceania and Asia would be combined so that Australia and New Zealand no longer had automatic bids to every major international tournament.

The Boomers and Tall Blacks would then have to duke it out with China, Korea, the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, and the remaining East Asian teams.

What do you think? Join the discussion: Hey FIBA, houldn’t there be a Middle East Basketball Region?