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The 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup opens Sept. 4 in Berlin with 16 teams split into four groups of four. Group play alone does not decide who reaches the quarterfinals, and the format has a twist that allows four teams to skip a game to reach the quarterfinals.
The team that finishes first in each group goes straight to the quarterfinals. But finishing first in a group is not the only way to survive, but it is the only way to advance without playing in a single-game elimination round first. The second and third place teams from Group A play the second and third place squads from Group B, and the same happens between Groups C and D. Only the fourth-place team in each group is eliminated outright.
So, three of every four teams in a group can still be playing after the group stage. The difference is that the group winner gets an extra day off and avoids a single-elimination game that could end its tournament early.
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Here is a look at who is in each group, along with an analysis of every team’s chances and a pick for who wins Group A and Group C.
2026 FIBA World Cup Group A
🇪🇸 Spain enters as the group’s top-ranked team at No. 4 in the FIBA World Rankings. Spain missed the 2022 World Cup after medaling in three straight editions before that, and it returns with Portland Fire center Megan DiLeo (formerly Gustafson) who is expected to anchor the frontcourt alongside a newer generation led by Seattle Storm center Awa Fam and with floor general Iyana Martín. Winning Group A sends Spain straight to the quarterfinals and gives it a real shot at ending that four-year absence from the podium.
🇩🇪 Germany will have home-country support as the tournament host, but the roster took a hit the summer. New York Liberty forward Satou Sabally is out while recovering from a concussion, and both her sister Nyara Sabally and Leonie Fiebich were working back from injuries into late August. Nyara was averaging 12.3 points and 5.3 rebounds for the Toronto Tempo before her calf injury. Point guard Alexis Peterson runs the offense, and FIBA has her listed at No. 17 on its list of the top 20 players to watch saying “a large chunk of responsibility and expectation will be on her shoulders.”
🇯🇵 Japan plays fast, shoots from deep and can sink teams when their outside shots fall. However, compared to other teams they are short with only four players that are at least six feet tall with center Ramu Tokashiki at 6-3. Guards Mai Yamamoto and Kokoro Tanaka lead the speedy backcourt, but Japan finished ninth at the 2022 World Cup and 12th at the Paris Olympics and finished fourth in the World Cup qualifying tournament to make it to qualify for Berlin. Japan’s team is coached by former Phoenix Mercury head coach Corey Gaines who directed the WNBA squad to a championship in 2009.
🇲🇱 Mali is making its third World Cup appearance, looking to improve on an 11th-place finish in 2022, and finishing second at the 2025 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket. Power forward Maimouna Haidara carried the scoring load after a World Cup qualifying tournament in which Mali beat Czechia and nearly beat Brazil. Depth is Mali’s weakness, and with games against Spain, Germany and Japan, it will be an uphill battle.
2026 FIBA World Cup Group B
🇫🇷 France is the clear favorite in this group and the No. 2 team in the world rankings. Gabby Williams brings two-way versatility on the wing, and dunk-capable Dominique Malonga gives France a legitimate interior force after averaging 17.0 points and 8.8 rebounds for Seattle this season. Marine Johannès and Janelle Salaün round out a deep roster. France has not reached a World Cup podium since taking bronze at the first tournament in 1953.
🇳🇬 Nigeria’s D’Tigress, ranked eighth, won last year’s AfroBasket title to punch its ticket to Berlin after beating Mali. The roster includes several Nigerian-American players with elite NCAA Division I and/or WNBA experience including Victoria Macaulay, Promise Amukamara (sister of Super Bowl champion Prince Amukamara), Rita Igbokwe, Jordan Obi, Nicole Enabosiv and forward Amy Okonkwo. Other players on the squad with DI experience include former Duke standout Elizabeth Balogun. Nigeria’s best World Cup finish is eighth.
🇭🇺 Hungary is back at the World Cup for the first time since 1998. Former UConn standout and Minnesota Lynx forward Dorka Juhász and point guard Yvonne Turner who played five seasons in the WNBA are the team’s building blocks. With Korea’s top center out injured, Hungary has an outside chance at second place in the group.
🇰🇷 South Korea is a traditional outside-shooting team that will lean even harder on its guards after center JiSu Park was ruled out with an ankle injury. Los Angeles Sparks guard Park Ji-hyun took her place. Korea has appeared in every World Cup but the first two, with two silver medals earned but the last medal was in 1979.
2026 FIBA World Cup Group C
🇧🇪 Belgium arrives as the reigning EuroBasket champion. Veteran forward and WNBA champion Emma Meesseman has won back-to-back EuroBasket MVP awards and ranks third on FIBA’s list of 20 players to watch. Point guard Julie Allemand runs the offense and has posted some of the best playmaking numbers in World Cup history. Belgium is chasing its first World Cup medal, and a win in the group finale would put reaching the medal podium in sight.
🇦🇺 Australia won Olympic bronze in Paris but heads to Berlin without Sami Whitcomb, who withdrew in late August with knee soreness after serving as MVP of Australia’s unbeaten qualifying run. Golden State Valkyries guard Miela Sowah replaces her on the roster. Seattle Storm forward Ezi Magbegor anchors the frontcourt and ranks fifth on FIBA’s players-to-watch list. Forwards Alanna Smith (Dallas Wings) and Stephanie Talbot (Las Vegas Aces) round out a group that still has the talent to compete for the top spot.
🇹🇷 Turkiye is making its third World Cup appearance, having finished fourth as host in 2014, and tenth in 2018. Connecticut Sun guard Kennedy Burke, who is in the midst of a career-best year, gives Turkey a scoring option. Turkey’s opener against Belgium will tell it a lot about where it stands in a difficult group. The team comes into the competition ranked at No. 16.
🇵🇷 Puerto Rico hosted the World Cup qualifying tournament in March and has a tough Berlin road. Puerto Rico finished fourth in that qualifier and now faces Australia and Belgium in the group. Former WNBA players, guard Arella Guirantes and center Imani McGee-Stafford, lead a roster that, according to FIBA, is one of the strongest Puerto Rico has fielded, even if the group draw makes advancing a long shot.
2026 FIBA World Cup Group D
🇺🇸 USA remains the overwhelming favorite to win a fifth straight World Cup title, though the roster changed late. Kelsey Plum and A’ja Wilson, both two-time World Cup gold medalists, are unable to play in Berlin because of health reasons, and USA Basketball added Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen in their place. Breanna Stewart, who has never lost a World Cup game, becomes the clear leader of a group that still includes Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, Napheesa Collier and Aliyah Boston. The U.S. opens against China on Sept. 4 in a rematch of the 2022 final, a game they won.
🇨🇳 China returns much of the frontcourt size from the 2022 final, though it will play the tournament without center Li Yueru. She announced on social media her passport was lost in the mail, so she won’t be able to go to Berlin. New York Liberty center Han Xu is preparing for her third World Cup and guard and team captain Yang Shuyu makes her World Cup debut after earning All-Star Five honors at the qualifying tournament in Wuhan.
🇮🇹 Italy is enjoying its best run in years, winning its first EuroBasket medal since 1995 last summer beating France for bronze. Golden State forward Cecilia Zandalasini leads a roster that went 4-1 at the World Cup qualifying tournament, including a win over Spain. Facing both the U.S. and China in group play is a tough draw, but Italy carries momentum into Berlin.
🇨🇿 Czechia returns to the World Cup for the first time since 2014 after a shaky qualifying run, and injuries have piled up since. Lynx rookie Emma Cechova tore her ACL early in her WNBA season, and Julia Reisingerova who averaged double figures during the last EuroBasket and played in the qualifying tournament is also unavailable. Czechia will need big performances from its young roster against a group that includes the U.S., China and surging Italy.
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2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup Group Prediction
Group B and Group D are not close calls. France and the United States are the two best teams in the tournament, and both drew groups without another team built to challenge them. Group A and Group C are different stories.
Group A Pick
Spain sits four spots higher than Germany and Japan in the FIBA World Ranking, and Germany is dealing with the kind of injury situation that changes a group. Japan’s lack of size is a real limitation. Mali is the clear fourth team in the group. Spain has the deepest and most complete roster of the four, and it should be favored in each of its three group games.
Pick: Spain (-145)
Group C Pick
Belgium is the reigning EuroBasket champion, and Meesseman arrives on the back of consecutive EuroBasket MVP seasons. Australia, meanwhile, lost Whitcomb, its most experienced perimeter player and the MVP of its own qualifying tournament, to injury. Belgium’s combination of Meesseman’s scoring and Allemand’s playmaking gives it the edge in what should be one of the group stage’s best games.
Pick: Belgium (-140)
Photo Credit: REUTERS
