Azernews.Az

Laman Ismayilova

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The opponents of the Azerbaijan women's national basketball team in the preliminary qualification round of the 2029 FIBA European Championship have been determined, AzerNEWS reports.

Based on the draw held in Mies, Switzerland, the national team will compete in Group A against Switzerland, Ireland, and Iceland.

The matches will take place on November 8–18 this year and February 7–17, 2027.

The FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2029 is the top international women's basketball championship in Europe, organized by FIBA Europe. It will be the final stage of a long qualification process involving many national teams across the continent.

The road to the tournament begins with the pre-qualifiers, which are designed mainly for teams that did not advance from earlier competitions, such as the 2027 qualification cycle. In total, 10 national teams take part in the Women's EuroBasket 2029 pre-qualifiers, including Azerbaijan, Switzerland, Ireland, Iceland, and others.

The pre-qualification process is divided into two rounds. In the first round, the teams are split into three groups (one group of four teams and two groups of three teams). They play in a round-robin format, meaning each team plays all the others in its group. These games are scheduled across two international windows: November 2026 and February 2027.

At the end of this stage, the group winners (three teams) advance to the second round. The second round is a smaller tournament played in June 2027, where these three teams compete against each other. Only one team from this stage progresses further to the next phase of qualification for the EuroBasket 2029.

The overall qualification system for EuroBasket 2029 is quite long and competitive. It starts years in advance and includes several stages before the final tournament. Ultimately, a set number of teams will qualify for the final championship, where they will join the host nations and compete for the European title.

In summary, the 2029 Women's EuroBasket qualification system is structured to give smaller or developing basketball nations additional chances to progress, while ensuring that only the strongest teams reach the final tournament.