BEIRUT (Lebanon)- The FIBA Regional Office-Asia on Thursday, May 13, 2026 announced that the FIBA U18 Asia Cup 2026 will be played in Ahmedabad, India from Aug 13-23, 2026 marking only the third ever time that the biennial FIBA’s flagship event for youth National Teams in Asia is hosted by the South Asian nation.
Situated in the western part of India, Ahmedabad is a city that has been on the rise in the Indian sporting annals. Home to the largest cricket stadium in the world – with a capacity of 132,000 spectators – the capital city of Gujarat state will host the 2030 Commonwealth Games and is also a confirmed bid for the 2036 Olympics.
The last two occasions India hosted the event has been seminal.
India last hosted this event – then called FIBA Asia U18 Championship – at the southern city of Bengaluru in 2004, where Iran won all their eight games enroute to beating Korea in the Final.
That triumph which was the West Asian nation’s first ever title in any event at the continental level marked the arrival of Team Melli as a force to reckon with in the Asian basketball circles.
Six years earlier, in 1998, India had hosted the event in the eastern city of Kolkata, which marked the international debut of the iconic Yao Ming. The Chinese superstar showed glimpses of his greatness while leading his team to the sixth of their record seven-titles before going on to become the most impactful player in Asian basketball history.
Australia head into the current competition as defending champions aiming to retain the gold medal they won two years ago at Amman (Jordan). The Boomers will be joined by fellow 2024 finalists and FIBA Oceania compatriots New Zealand along with 13 other teams that will come through the Qualifiers from FIBA Asia Sub-Zones making it a total of 16 teams in the fray.
The number of qualifying berths from each Sub-Zone will be determined by a combination of a fixed number of slots along with the ranking from teams from the Sub-Zone in the 2024 edition.
Kazakhstan were the first team to book their berth via the Sub-Zone qualifier route having completed a clean sweep of their games enroute to finishing on top of the Central Asian Basketball Association (CABA) U18 Championship early April.
Teams in South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) will play their qualification event in Colombo (Sri Lanka) from May 25-29, 2026 to qualify one team, while teams in the East Asia Basketball Association (EABA) will play from June 2-7, 2026 in Fukuoka (Japan) to qualify four teams.
The South East Asian Basketball Association (SEABA) U18 Qualifiers is scheduled to be played in Krabi (Thailand) from June 10-14, 2026 to qualify two teams, while teams in the Gulf Basketball Association will be involved in their qualifying event in Doha (Qatar), from where three teams will make it to the 2026 FIBA U18 Asia Cup.
The 16 teams will be divided into four groups of four teams each for the round-robin Group Phase whence the top three teams from each group will advance to the Final Phase, which will be played on a knock-out basis.
The No 1 ranked team from each group will advance directly to the Quarter-Finals stages, while the No 2 and No 3 ranked teams from each group will be involved in the Qualification to Quarter-Finals play-offs.
The top four teams from the FIBA U18 Asia Cup 2026 will represent the region at the FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup to be played in Pardubice, Czechia from 26 June to 4 July 2027.
FIBA