TEHRAN – Iran will start the FIBA 3x3 Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) with a match against Japan.

Team Melli will meet Japan and Turkmenistan in Group B on March 28 and play Ukraine and Australia two days later.

A total of 20 teams per gender can still make it to Tokyo after qualifying for the FIBA 3x3 Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT), which will grant three tickets to the Olympics by gender.

Iran are in Group B along with Japan, Ukraine, Turkmenistan and Australia.

The U.S. women's team will play in Group A with France, Germany, Uruguay and Indonesia. 

Group C includes Netherlands, Estonia, Belarus, Hungary and Sri Lanka. In Group D, Italy, Taipei, Switzerland, Spain and host India will play.

The top two teams in each group will advance to the quarterfinals, where the knock-out stage begins. 

The winner of the third-place game, as well as both teams that qualify for the final, will compete in the Olympics. 

The world's top three teams in this event—China, Serbia and Russia—and Japan, the host nation, have already booked their ticket to Tokyo. 

In total, there will be eight 3x3 teams that qualify. 

The eighth team will be decided in a separate six-team tournament in April in Budapest, Hungary. This tournament is meant to produce a 3x3 team whose country was not represented in the traditional 5x5 format in either 2012 or 2016.