Argentina and Britain have been awarded wild cards into the 2019 Davis Cup, the first to be played under a radically changed format, organisers announced Wednesday. Under a format proposed by the Kosmos group, and adopted by the International Tennis Federation in August, the competition will bring together 18 nations in one place for a week at the end of the tennis season. The four 2018 semi-finalists -- France, Croatia, Spain and the United States -- qualify directly.

Twelve more places will be decided in qualifiers on Feb 1-2 next year. That left two spots for wildcards selected by the organisers and they have chosen Argentina and Britain. The choice was made by a committee of ITF president David Haggerty, one of his vice presidents Rene Stammbach, former Spanish tennis player Galo Blanco and Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique, who is president of Kosmos.