 This included the president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov and prince of Spain Felipe.It was first decided that 16 teams would participate in EuroBasket 2011, however FIBA Europe decided on 5 September 2010, in a meeting in Istanbul, that there would be 24 teams in the tournament, after the Qualifying Round was concluded.Lithuania automatically received a place as the hosts, nine other countries that competed in the 2010 FIBA World Championship also received a place, 12 Countries were determined through qualifying matches played in August 2010 (five had initially qualified, and seven were added after the decision to expand the tournament to 24 teams), and two more qualifiers were decided in an additional qualifying tournament that took place in August 2011.