The 2025 FIBA Zone V Qualifiers will be held in Cairo, Egypt, between February 3 and 10. The goal is for teams to qualify for the 2025 FIBA Women’s Afro Basketball, which will be held in August in Abidjan Côte d’Ivoire.
The Zone V region will have the women’s national teams: Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, and hosts Egypt. Only two teams will make it out of this region to proceed to the games in Côte d’Ivoire. Rwanda, which also plays in the Zone V region, is among the four teams that automatically have a spot in the 12-team tournament. Another team that has already qualified for the tournament is Nigeria, the reigning champion of the 2023 tournament. Senegal, who came in second after losing to Nigeria, and bronze medalists Mali are already qualified for the tournament.
Egypt’s Dominance at Zone V
For the previous years, the Egypt National Basketball team, Al Ahly, has maintained dominance in the FIBA Zone V, winning the tournament for three consecutive years: 2019, 2021 and 2023. In 2023, in an arena filled with basketball enthusiasts in Kampala, the team beat the host team in a heated-up matchup. The game ended 74-65 in favor of Egypt, which qualified for the Women’s Afro basketball games later in the year. Uganda was granted a wild card to the games. Kenya came in third place, to miss the Afro basketball games for the first time after back-to-back presence at the games. South Sudan, which struggled to register a win at the tournament, came in fourth place.
What to Expect This Year?
Unlike the 2023 FIBA Zone V Qualifiers, which took place in Uganda with only four countries participating, six teams are expected to be at the competition this time round. The teams will meet to compete for the one ticket to the AfroBasketall Tournament 2025. The Uganda Gazelles are out to claim their lost glory as victors of the Zone V basketball. The team that played in the 2023 games on a wild card last won the qualifiers in 2011 and 2013. The Kenyan Lionesses seek for a comeback to the continent’s top competition. South Sudan and Burundi, which have never made it to the competition, hold hopes of finally making it to the tournament.
The host country, Egypt, comes into the tournament with a home advantage to maintain its dominance in the Zone V region and continuous presence at the FIBA AfroBasketall games.
Will the Host Nation, Côte d’Ivoire, Make a Case for the 2025 Tournament?
The biennial event took place at the BK Arena in Kigali in 2023, Senegal in 2019, and Cameroon in 2021. This will be the first time Côte d’Ivoire will host an international women’s tournament. The host nation team will have an opportunity to play in front of its home crowd to potentially improve their FIBA rankings globally and on the continent. In 2023, the team barely made it out of group stages and finished the tournament in 11th place.
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