SAN ANTONIO — Despite the ongoing war in Iran, organizers of next year’s FIBA World Cup are not changing plans to hold the top global men’s basketball competition in Qatar in August of 2027.
Andreas Zagklis, secretary general for FIBA, said Friday that Qatari officials have made clear the World Cup “is a project of national importance,” and preparations to hold the 32-team championship, with dozens of NBA stars expected to participate, are “going according to schedule.”
The entire tournament is scheduled to be held in Doha, the capital of Qatar and site of the 2022 soccer World Cup, from Aug. 27 to Sept. 12, 2027.
“Unfortunately, we know how to deal with these situations,” said Zagklis, referring to war outbreaks in Ukraine and the Middle East that coincided with FIBA World Cup qualifying tournaments.
“And also, unfortunately, the federations in the area are resilient and are ready to respond in the best possible way,” Zagklis continued. “We have excellent partners in Qatar. If things arrive at that spot, I’m sure we will have very good and direct conversations, and we’ll find the best possible solution for the players and the fans.”
Zagklis made his comments ahead of Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks. On Monday in Geneva, he will host NBA officials and their counterparts from EuroLeague for the next round of negotiations to form a singular top European league under the NBA’s umbrella — commonly referred to as NBA Europe. NBA commissioner Adam Silver and chief deputy Mark Tatum have said the NBA is in its final stages of preparations to launch NBA Europe, with a targeted start date of October 2027.
The NBA would prefer to have an agreement with the EuroLeague, which has several licensed teams that have expressed interest in joining NBA Europe. Zagklis said, “I can tell you I will try with everything I have (to broker) a deal.”
Also, as part of the meetings at FIBA headquarters near Geneva next week, the association’s board of governors will hear an update on World Cup preparations. The World Cup, won by Germany in 2023, is in a country that fell under attack from the Iranian military twice in the last year — in June of 2025 and more heavily in February as retaliation for the United States’ attack on Iran.
After the February attacks, FIBA canceled World Cup qualifying games across the region that were scheduled for March and rescheduled them for June.
The U.S., as is customary, is likely to field a full team of NBA players for the World Cup, but numerous other countries will also fill their rosters with stars, including Victor Wembanyama (France), Luka Dončić (Slovenia), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada), Nikola Jokić (Serbia) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece), just to name a few.
In 2004, Team USA sent a men’s basketball team to the Athens Olympics that was light on its usual star power, in part due to security concerns, and lost three games en route to a bronze medal. The World Cup, now held the year before the Olympics, has proven to be a harder tournament for the Americans to recruit their top stars. Given that the U.S. is the host country for the 2028 Olympics and therefore doesn’t have to win (or even play well) at the World Cup to qualify for the Games, war concerns could make it even harder for the Americans to send the kind of players FIBA wants to see in the World Cup.
USA Basketball finished fourth at the 2023 World Cup in the Philippines and seventh at the China World Cup in 2019.
“The organizing committee has not stopped a single day,” Zagklis said. “Qatar, since, I think, April 1, has not been affected (or) impacted by the hostilities. It’s actually now, as far as we know, playing a mediator role, as it was doing in the past in the area. So we will have a continuation of our promotion.”
