LONDON (2010 FIBA World Championship) - Great Britain coach Chris Finch is keeping his fingers crossed that his team will be among the four wild-card recipients for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey.

The Brits are facing stiff competition from numerous countries around the world.

FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann is to make a recommendation to the FIBA central board and it will decide on the wild cards this weekend in Istanbul.

UK Sport, meanwhile, are also due to make an announcement on 2012 funding.

"Without a doubt, the next week is a massive one for British Basketball,” said Finch.

“I'm sure that in years to come, we will look back to this week and perhaps view it as a turning point in the program because there are two decisions which will have huge ramifications for us.”

When London was awarded the 2012 Olympic Games, British Basketball was put on notice that it needed to prove its competitiveness before its teams would be allowed to take up spots in Olympic competitions normally reserved for host nations.

Britain’s men immediately won promotion to EuroBasket Division A, which is never an easy thing to do, and then qualified for the Final Round of the EuroBasket by topping their Division A group ahead of Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Czech Republic.

In Poland, Britain received arguably the toughest draw of the 16 teams and went up against Slovenia, Serbia and world champions Spain – three teams that reached the Semi-Finals.

Despite throwing a scare into Slovenia and eventual champions Spain, the British men lost all three games and that has left them needing a wild card to take part in next year’s big event in Turkey.

"With regard to the wild card, as we were in Poland, we are competing against some top nations for those finals few places in Turkey next year and it will be no mean-feat in achieving one,” Finch said.

"If you look at our performances alone, then we have demonstrated to FIBA exactly what they have asked of us since we began this journey in 2006. We gained promotion at the first attempt, then qualified for the European Championships at the first time of asking and finally competed well in Poland against three group opponents, two of whom went on to contest the overall final.

"We are still striving for that Olympic place in 2012 but to warrant that, we have to play against the best teams in the world and the only way of doing this is to compete at the World Championship.

"With a fully fit roster available to us, we would not just be making up the numbers in Turkey next year, we would be there to compete.”

Injuries didn’t help Britain this year in Poland with the country’s NBA basketball icon, Luol Deng of the Chicago Bulls, unable to play because of a lower leg fracture.

“The long-term goal for the team is to medal at 2012, but the long-term goal for the sport is to establish itself in Britain for years to come and I believe the efforts of our two GB teams will be integral in providing a platform for this," Finch said.

As for the funding announcement by UK Sport, Finch said in a British Basketball statement: "UK Sport have so far showed tremendous support and belief in what British Basketball is trying to achieve and in turn I believe we have demonstrated that we deserve this through our rapid rise within the European rankings - both our men and women.

“And if we are to be successful in three years time, then we undoubtedly need that continued support from them."

FIBA