Jordan In 4Th Spot In FIBA World Cup Qualifiers
Jordan let the win slip out of their hands against the Philippines, but against Australia, it was a different story. The squad clearly lacked a cohesive attack and relied on individual efforts with Amin Abu Hawas leading Jordan with 21 points followed by Abdullah Olajuwon and Jalen Harris with 19 while Ahmad Duweiri was only held to 6 points.
In other Window 4 matches, New Zealand beat Iran 93-91 in OT and Syria 126-74 while the Philippines beat Iran 68-56. Teams are contesting 8 Asian slots in two groups with the top three from each group and the best 4th placed team advancing to the World Cup. Jordan is playing in a challenging Group E which is now headed by Australia followed by New Zealand, Iran, Jordan, the Philippines and Syria while Lebanon heads Group F followed by Japan, China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. Jordan next plays New Zealand on November 27 and Australia on November 30 in window 5 with window 6 matches against the Philippines and New Zealand on February 25 and 28, 2027.
After relatively easy Group C matches in Round 1 where they finished second after Iran with Syria third and Iraq eliminated, Jordan's hopes of moving to their third consecutive and fourth overall World Cup after first qualifying in 2010 have now been made tougher as they need to win at least two or three matches of their remaining four matches to secure qualification. The squad's new coach Spaniard Luis Guil Torres clearly needs to undertake drastic changes after the team also finished 6th at the 45th William Jones Cup in Taiwan and now has the Nagoya Asian Games coming up where Jordan was drawn in Group B alongside Iran, Qatar and Taiwan while Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia play in Group A and China, Philippines, Bahrain and Kazakhstan in Group C.
Jordan's squad regrouped late with Torres leading team practice just ahead of William Jones. The lineup was a mix of young players recalled from Jordan's U19 World Cup qualifying team combining with a now ageing lineup which is led by veteran Duweiri, Abu Hawas, Ahmad Hamarsheh, Freddie Ibrahim as Olajuwon as well as pro Harris.
A total of 80 national squads from the four FIBA regions are contesting the qualifiers in six windows from November 2025 to March 2027 following which 7 teams from Asia, 5 teams from Africa, 7 from the Americas, and 12 from Europe will advance to the 2027 World Cup in Doha which is a direct qualifier for 7 national teams to the 2028 Olympic Games.
The seven best ranked Asian teams from Round 2, as well as Qatar qualify automatically as host. If Qatar is not ranked among the top four in their group the fourth place teams from groups 'E' and 'F' will be ranked against each other to decide the final qualifier.
At the last 31st FIBA Asia Cup 2025, Jordan's squad failed to keep up the nation's impressive record finishing 11th among 16 nations after previously reaching the medals podium twice. So far, the squad has played at the FIBA Asia Cup 17th times, with their best position runner-up in 2011, 3rd in 2009 and 4th in 2022.
Apart from qualifying to the World Cup three times in 2010, 2019 and 2023, the squad was the first Arab team to win the William Jones Cup in 2007 and 2008. They later won the 17th Arab Basketball Championship for the first time and finished runner-up to Egypt at the Pan-Arab Games. In 2023, Jordan was Asian Games silver medalist. Jordan also qualified to the U19 Basketball World Cup in 1995 and 2025.
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