All Purpose FIBA World Cup Wild Card Thread

[sixama23]

According to the president of the Finnish basketball federation, Antti Zitting, Finland paid only 500,000 euros as a donation to FIBA. "Angry Birds" cooperation and the big number of travelling fans were the strongest points of the Finnish bid.

Greek media are reporting that FIBA asked from the other applicants to pay more in cash in order to match the financial/commercial assets of the Finnish bid. According to this, Brazil and Greece paid 820,000 euros and Turkey paid double (1,600,000 euros) because they had already been given a wildcard in 2006.

[Victorious]

Not sure if you are serious or joking, but I really got this impression that China and Russia at least were informed that they wont be chosen this time and then they decided to cancel their applications to save face a bit. As they are big nations this could maybe reflect negatively for the growth of the sport in their countries or something. Also got the impression that Italy pulled out as a protest, because FIBA started to ask more than 500k money. Pretty sure they would've got chosen over Turkey if they didn't do that (or over Finland). No clue what the deal was with Germany though.

They made their choices and they informed the federations so that they could pull back.

Brazil was a no-brainer, since they will organize the next Olympics.
Out of the European teams, Greece is a high quality team and a medal contender (when they participate with full roster), the highest ranked team among the Wild Card participants and fulfills every other criteria. Moreover, they have never applied for a Wild Card before. So they were an obvious choice.
Italy, Turkey and Russia all have received a wild card before. But FIBA probably decided to choose one of them, since they are big countries where basketball is very popular and they have quality teams. Russia received a wild card in the previous WC. They are also rebuilding their team which has weakened considerably, so they were out of contest. Out of Italy and Turkey, they choose Turkey. Obviously because Turkey has invested more in basketball in recent years.

Then we have the surprise, the choice of Finland over countries like China. There are arguments to support this decision. China failed to qualify in a relatively weak tournament (FIBA ASIA). And there are already a few teams of FIBA Asia in the tournament. Yet, Finland surely is not a very strong team either. In any case, this is why they are called 'Wild Cards'. In this line of thought, FIBA always selects two big countries and two small countries. Greece and Finland were the small countries.

Most of the other countries never had a chance.

[Mindozas]

Not sure if you are serious or joking, but I really got this impression that China and Russia at least were informed that they wont be chosen this time and then they decided to cancel their applications to save face a bit. As they are big nations this could maybe reflect negatively for the growth of the sport in their countries or something. Also got the impression that Italy pulled out as a protest, because FIBA started to ask more than 500k money. Pretty sure they would've got chosen over Turkey if they didn't do that (or over Finland). No clue what the deal was with Germany though.

I'm not joking, Russia didn't withdraw, Russian federation president confirmed it before/after wildcards were announced, but FIBA just didn't pick them. And I stated the reasons why. They are really serious to keep Russia aside. It wasn't some shock in country, nor for players, nor for fans, there were interviews with the players like Kaun, Monya and etc. and all of them weren't surprised at all as everyone knows what a shity situation is in RFB (conflicts of interest, trials and etc.). In worst case scenarion FIBA might even ban Russia from internation competitions. Surely not the circumstances to give them wildcard.
China did withdraw. I read that they simply doesn't have any expecations regarding this WC, doesn't have even a coach, pretty weak team, so it was kinda obvious that another fail is coming. So I guess it was wise decision to start some rebuilding, skip this years tournament, participate in Asian Olympics instead and prepare for 2015 Asian championship, which will be qualifier to Rio2016.

[pohani komarac]

Greece, Turkey and Finland all defeated by Italy in the last EC... i guess coach Pianigiani should be very angry right now...

i remeber days when coatia finished above italy, turkey and sicg, defeted italy and turkey in their matchups...jet did't play wc....but let's forget about that

only question is wich organisation is biggest joke....uleb or fiba

[JGX]

Of course the system is stupid, but I was happy to see a new team like Finland make it, and really happy that China, who are terrible post-Yao, didn't make it.

[Liha]

According to the president of the Finnish basketball federation, Antti Zitting, Finland paid only 500,000 euros as a donation to FIBA. "Angry Birds" cooperation and the big number of travelling fans were the strongest points of the Finnish bid.

Greek media are reporting that FIBA asked from the other applicants to pay more in cash in order to match the financial/commercial assets of the Finnish bid. According to this, Brazil and Greece paid 820,000 euros and Turkey paid double (1,600,000 euros) because they had already been given a wildcard in 2006.

Wow. Very interesting detail there that Finland had to pay less. They really wanted to give Finland a shot then. I guess it's not really for the strength of the Finnish team as it's the weakest of these countries, but more of the momentum and hype that is building up and I certainly fully believe that with these kind of actions in 10-15 years basketball can reach the high popularity level of ice hockey in Finland and I'm thinking that was FIBA's goal here. I mean Finland doesn't really have any other national team than Ice Hockey that is relatively big team sport and where we are doing well, so the country really wants and needs another high quality team. I'm seeing similar signs here as to when Finland started to become a powerhouse in ice hockey in the early 1990's.