FIBA confirms dates for Olympic qualifying tournament

FIBA on Friday confirmed that the rescheduled men's Olympic basketball qualifying tournaments will be played from June 29 to July 4, 2021.

According to a statement on FIBA's official website, fiba.basketball, they said the decision was made after discussions with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

"FIBA has been involved in a consultation process with the IOC regarding these four tournaments, in which the players' workload, the national team preparations and the national league calendars were all considered. The IOC has exceptionally approved these dates due to these factors and also the extraordinary circumstances that have occurred with the rescheduling of the Tokyo Olympic Games," the statement said.

The four FIBA Olympic qualifying tournaments are to be played in Canada, Croatia, Lithuania and Serbia, with the national federations being awarded the hosting rights in 2019 by FIBA's executive committee.

A total of 24 men's national teams are set to compete in these four qualifying tournaments of six teams each. Seven teams already made the cut directly for the Olympics from the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019, along with Japan as hosts.

The winners of the four tournaments will qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, now taking place from July 23 to August 8, 2021.