In 2022 FIBA's Central Board approved the expansion of the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2026 to 16 teams.
National teams will qualify for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2026 - FIBA's flagship women's competition - via four global FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2026 Qualifying Tournaments in March 2026.
Accordingly, the FIBA Women's World Cup Qualifying Tournaments will feature a total of 24 teams, including the winner of the newly introduced FIBA Women's World Cup Pre-Qualifying Tournaments 2024, determined by their results in the four FIBA Women's Continental Cups in 2025.
4 highest placed teams FIBA Women's AfroBasket 2025
6 highest placed teams FIBA Women's Asia Cup 2025
6 highest placed teams FIBA AmeriCup 2025
8 highest placed teams FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025
There will be 4 tournaments of 6 teams, where 16 teams will qualify for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2026. The host(s) and the winners of each Women’s Continental Cup 2025 will participate in these qualifiers; however, they receive automatic qualification for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2026.
The FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup Pre-Qualifying Tournaments will take place in August 2024 in Kigali, Rwanda and Mexico City, Mexico and will include four teams not qualified from FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments to Paris 2024 plus 12 teams from FIBA Women's Continental Cups 2023, with a maximum of 4 teams per region.
The teams participating in the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup Pre-Qualifying Tournaments are:
Rwanda: Brazil, Hungary, Philippines, Senegal, Argentina, Great Britain, Lebanon, Rwanda Mexico: Czechia, Korea, Mali, Venezuela, Mexico, Montenegro, Mozambique, New Zealand
The 16 participating teams, 8 per tournament, will play in 2 groups of 4 teams, with the top 2 teams from each group qualifying for the semi-finals for each event. The winners of each tournament will qualify for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup Qualifying Tournaments in 2026.