By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) officially made the Philippines one of the hosts in the upcoming first two windows of the 2023 FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers.
Instead of the planned home-and-away format for the competing nations, FIBA announced that they will revert to the old bubble-system where PH will host Korea, New Zealand, and India.
“The FIBA Regional Office Asia has been closely monitoring the pandemic situation in the region and they saw it fit to employ their right to hold the games in a bubble. The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, because of the experience we gained in hosting the final window of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers, volunteered to host the games in Group A,” said SBP President Al Panlilio.
Last June, it was also PH who hosted the third window of the 2021 FIBA Asian Cup qualifiers with Angeles University Foundation Gym as their main location.
It was also where the young core of the Gilas Pilipinas cadets shocked the whole world when they swept the mighty South Korean team led by former PBA import Ricardo Ratliffe.
However, the SBP is yet to release the final playing venue for the FIBA bubble next year with only four months left for preparations.
“FIBA gave the SBP a commendation for the way we hosted the ACQ window and this led to their decision to take us up on our offer to host again this coming February. We’ll be hosting four teams in total, down from the seven the last time, so we’re confident that we could not only repeat what we accomplished but improve on it,” added Panlilio.
