Mies, Switzerland, Apr 19 (IANS): The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) will organise Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournaments this year to open the road for 40 teams to earn tickets to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the world basketball governing body announced here.

The 12 highest-ranked teams that did not qualify for the Second Round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers, and 28 teams that participated in the Second Round but did not qualify for the 32-team World Cup in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia this summer, will compete in the event, reports Xinhua.

Five winners of the 40 teams will qualify for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in 2024.

The pre-qualifying event will be held on August 12-20, 2023 and the FIBA Central Board will decide the host of the event at the meeting on April 28-29. The draw of the tournament will be on May 1, 2023.

Following are the 40 teams:

From Africa: Cameroon, Congo DR, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia and Uganda

From Americas: Argentina, Bahamas, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Panama, Uruguay and US Virgin Islands

From Asia: Bahrain, Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Syria

From Europe: Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Türkiye, Ukraine and Bulgaria.