Croatia, France, Germany and Latvia to host EuroBasket 2015

MADRID (EuroBasket 2015) - Croatia, France, Germany and Latvia were awarded the right to be the hosts of next year's EuroBasket 2015, while France were also assigned the Final Phase.

The Board of FIBA Europe voted for the four hosts during an extraordinary meeting on Monday in Madrid, Spain.

The Group Phase will be organised in Zagreb (Croatia), Montpellier (France), Berlin (Germany) and Riga (Latvia).

The Final Phase will be played in the multifunctional Lille Arena, which will have a 27,000 capacity for the purposes of EuroBasket.

"This is an important moment in the history of European basketball, as we have voted not only for the hosts of next year's event but also on pioneering a new concept, with four hosts," commented FIBA Europe President Turgay Demirel.

"All bids were of the highest quality and it was not easy to choose between them. I would like to thank all bidders for their commitment and their excellent preparation work, coming up to the vote."

In mid-June the newly-elected Board of FIBA Europe decided to relocate EuroBasket 2015 from Ukraine because of the unstable situation in the country and invited bids by its member federations to host the event instead.

Sixteen federations expressed an initial interest to host and eight of them bid officially - Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Latvia, Poland and Turkey. These eight applications were the biggest number of applications for a EuroBasket event, since FIBA Europe became a FIBA zone in 2002.

Croatia, France and Turkey bid to organise one of the four Group Phase groups and the Final Phase knock-out round. Additionally Turkey bid to organise the Final Phase round only.

All other countries bid to organise only one of the four Group Phase groups.

Prior to the Board meeting Turkey withdrew their candidature from hosting any part of the tournament while Poland and Croatia withdrew their candidature to host the Final Phase of the tournament leaving France as the only candidate to host the Final Phase.

EuroBasket 2015 will be played between 5-20 September, next year.

FIBA