Angola to Host 2025 AfroBasket Finals

0
Angola to Host 2025 AfroBasket Finals
Angola's modern sports facility, Kilamba. One of the host venues for the 2025 AfroBasket

Angola won the right to host the 31st edition of FIBA AfroBasket’s final phase scheduled in August of next year. Angola was vying with Morocco and Egypt to host Africa’s top senior men’s basketball tournament.

Having successfully hosted the 2023 FIBA AfroCan, Angola was granted the rights to host the 2025 men’s AfroBasket, beating out Morocco and Egypt.

Angola, one of African countries with numerous sophisticated basketball facilities, will host a 16-country showcase to decide Tunisia’s successor in the next four years. And, unlike the previous edition held in Rwanda, Angola wants to stage the basketball extravaganza in various cities.

Huíla and Benguela cities can host the preliminary phase of 31st African Cup of Nations, AfroBasket in 2025, as they did in 2007.

Prior to the final tournament, The qualifiers to decide the 16 teams for next year’s main competition are underway.

The 20 teams are split into five groups of four teams each. Each team will play each opponent in its group twice in a tournament format over three windows: 19-27 February 2024, 18-26 November 2024, and 17-25 February 2025.

After the qualifiers, three top teams from each group, together with the host country Angola, will compete in the 2025 AfroBasket final phase.

Angola belongs to group E, along with Tunisia, Kenya, and Guinea, and all members of this group are likely to make it to Luanda.

Angola has previously hosted the competition three times, in 1989, 1999, and 2007, with the Parancas Negras winning all three. The 11-time winners and record holders will vie for the title, they last won in Abidjan in 2013.