Spain Basketball Returns to Tenerife for World Cup Qualifier

The Spanish men's national basketball team is set to return to Tenerife, and the date and time are now confirmed. It's been six years since the senior team played there. On Sunday, November 30, they'll face Georgia at Santiago Martín. This game will also be Chus Mateo's first as head coach on Spanish soil, taking over from Sergio Scariolo.

This match is a qualifier for the 2027 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Qatar. This newspaper first reported the venue in late July, before the official announcement on September 12. Tickets went on sale after that, and the first tier of Santiago Martín is already sold out. Remaining tickets are priced between 10 and 20 euros.

The Spanish Basketball Federation has now confirmed the exact start time: 6:45 PM. This timing was chosen to fit the television schedule. The game will be played in Los Majuelos.

Besides Chus Mateo's debut in Spain (he'll officially start as coach on Thursday the 27th in Denmark), the match offers several exciting points for Tenerife fans. For one, there's a chance that at least two players from local team La Laguna Tenerife, Jaime Fernández and Fran Guerra, will be in the Spanish squad. They've regularly played for the national team in recent years, when fit.

What's more, the November 30th match will be the official farewell for Gio Shermadini from his national team. After this FIBA window and two decades representing Georgia, he's retiring from international play, where he's considered a legend. "First I will say goodbye to my fans in Georgia and then I will do it here, in Tenerife," the center for La Laguna Tenerife said a few weeks ago.

This return of the national team was made possible by the support of local authorities, a good relationship with the Spanish Federation, and positive past experiences on the island. This will be the men's team's fifth official game in Tenerife in just over eight years.

After almost 40 years away, Spain last played in Tenerife in August 2017. That was a three-team tournament against Tunisia and Belgium, a warm-up for Eurobasket 2017, where Sergio Scariolo's team went on to win bronze. However, that return was marred by a serious injury to Sergio Llull. Early in the game against Belgium, the Real Madrid point guard landed badly, tearing a ligament in his right knee. This kept him out of the game for almost nine months.

Spain returned to the island in early December 2018, playing Ukraine. They won a tense game 72-68, which secured their spot in the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China – a tournament they eventually won. Three players from La Laguna Tenerife – Javi Beirán, Rodrigo San Miguel, and Sebas Saiz – played for the national team then.

Just a few months later, in late February 2019, Spain played another game in Tenerife. This time, they were already qualified for the World Cup, so the match against Turkey was less important. The national team won easily, and the same three La Laguna Tenerife players saw some game time, though Rodrigo San Miguel's appearance was brief due to a back injury.

In the draw for the 2027 FIBA World Cup in Qatar, held in May, Spain was placed in Group A of the European Qualifiers with Georgia, Denmark, and Ukraine. The top three teams from this group will move on to the second and final phase. There, they will join the top three teams from Group B (Greece, Montenegro, Portugal, and Romania). In this combined Group I, all results from the first phase carry over, and the top three teams will qualify for Qatar 2027.