Izuchukwu Okosi
World basketball ruling body, FIBA, has released a statement on the withdrawal of the Nigeria women’s national team, D’Tigress from the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Sydney, Australia reports Prime Business Africa.
The Federal Government of Nigeria had banned the country’s national teams from international competitions due to internal strife in the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) albeit the ban has been reversed.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelFIBA revealed that the NBBF will face penalty for the government’s decision to pull the women’s team out of the competition holding in September.
Nigeria has been replaced by Mali which were the second best ranked African team during the World Cup qualification campaign.
The statement from the FIBA’s Secretariat reads:
“The Nigerian women’s national team has been withdrawn from the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 and replaced by Mali, as confirmed on June 2, 2022.
“The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) will be subject to disciplinary sanctions for this withdrawal and its consequences, including on the players and the competition.”
On June 2, 2022, FIBA noted that it was informed about the decision of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to withdraw the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) from all international basketball competitions and activities for a period of two years.
“In subsequent communications with the NBBF, and despite FIBA’s request, it has become clear that against the circumstances created by the government’s decision, the NBBF is unable to confirm its participation in the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022.
“Given the multiple strict deadlines that cannot be postponed in order to ensure the successful staging of a major international event (visa procedures, schedules, ticket sales, accommodations, friendly games, preliminary rosters, flight tickets, accreditations, etc.) and to protect the integrity of the competition, the FIBA Executive Committee has decided that Nigeria’s withdrawal from the FIBA Women’s World Cup 2022 is confirmed.
The statement also noted that FIBA has received no official information from the NBBF or other authorities in relation to the Nigerian men’s national team.
The men’s national team are expected to begin their World Cup qualification campaign in N ovember.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
