The Nigerian women’s basketball team has been replaced by Mali’s women’s basketball team ahead of the 2022 Women’s World Cup coming up in a few months in Sydney, Australia.
FIBA, the International Basketball Federation has confirmed that Nigeria will no longer be participating in the women’s world cup following Nigeria’s self-imposed ban from international competitions.
The self-imposed ban was announced last month by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare, who announced that with the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari, the country should withdraw from competing in any international basketball competitions for the next two years.
According to the minister, the decision was geared at revamping the sport from the grassroots and finding a lasting solution plaguing the administration of basketball in Nigeria.
After reaching the NBBF, FIBA in it’s official statement on Thursday said the NBBF “is unable to confirm its participation in the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022.” And it further said that the Nigerian basketball team, D’Tigress will be replaced by Mali at the competition.
FIBA added that it “will announce whether there will be any other decisions related to the NBBF’s participation in other FIBA competitions and any potential disciplinary measures in due course.”
According to the statement “FIBA 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 as follows.
Nigeria’s withdrawal from the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 is confirmed.“Mali, as the next ranked team from Group B of the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade, is invited to participate in the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022
FIBA will announce whether there will be any other decisions related to the NBBF’s participation in other FIBA competitions and any potential disciplinary measures in due course.”
The members of the D’Tigress and other affected persons have repeatedly called on the government to go reconsider its decision to place the ban and to seek other ways of solving the perceived problems plaguing the administration especially since the D’Tigress qualified from the Belgrade tournament where they beat France and Mali were drawn in Group A against Serbia, France, Canada, Japan, and Australia for the World Cup.
