Egypt draw hosts Cote d’Ivoire in U18 AfroBasket group

Egypt have been drawn alongside hosts Cote d’Ivoire, Chad and Nigeria in Group A at the FIBA U18 AfroBasket, which takes place in Cote d’Ivoire from 5 to 16 August 2026.

The draw for the under-18 tournament was held on Monday, with 12 national teams confirmed for the finals.

Egypt secured their place after finishing runners-up at the Zone 5 qualifying tournament, which was held recently at the Cairo International Stadium indoor hall.

Their group includes Cote d’Ivoire, who will host the competition, as well as Chad and Nigeria. The draw places Egypt in a four-team section, with the teams competing for positions that will determine their route into the knockout stage.

Egypt’s 12-player squad for the tournament is made up of Rami Magdy, Bejad Mostafa, Mostafa Tamer, Hussein Youssef, Omar Ehab, Seif Hammad, Mohamed Khaled, Bilal Sohaib, Zain El-Din Ahmed, Asaad Qaidar, Ahmed Osama and Mohamed Ghandour.

The group phase will be played in a single round-robin format, with the teams in each of the three groups meeting one another once.

The top eight teams at the end of the group stage will progress to the quarter-finals.

The three group winners will be ranked from first to third place. The teams finishing second in each group will then be placed from fourth to sixth, while the two best third-placed teams will occupy seventh and eighth positions.

Those rankings will be determined according to the number of victories and points difference.

The quarter-final pairings will therefore be arranged according to each team’s overall ranking: the side finishing first will face the team placed eighth, while the second-ranked team will meet the seventh-ranked side.

The remaining quarter-finals will see the teams ranked third and sixth go head-to-head, with the fourth-placed team taking on the side in fifth.

The tournament features three groups, but only eight of the 12 participating teams will reach the last eight. That means the final standings in each section will be important, particularly for the teams competing for the two available quarter-final places reserved for the best third-placed sides.

For Egypt, the competition follows their second-place finish in the Zone 5 qualifiers and gives the team an opportunity to compete at the continental under-18 finals. Their opening-stage campaign will be played against the tournament hosts and two regional opponents, with the group results feeding directly into the quarter-final rankings.

The FIBA U18 AfroBasket runs for 12 days, beginning on 5 August and concluding on 16 August in Cote d’Ivoire.