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The Doha window of the 2021 FIBA Asian Cup Qualifiers has been postponed.
According to the Saudi Arabian Basketball Federation, the Qatar Basketball Federation has decided to move the dates for the Qualifiers from February 18 to February 22.
Qatar will enter a 60-day lockdown starting Saturday due to rising coronavirus cases.
“The Asia Executive Office issued a decision to cancel the third window of the Asian Basketball Qualifiers to be held in the state of Qatar, which includes Saudi Arabia-Qatar-Syria-Iran, based on the apology of the Federation of Qatar for hosting the latest Coronavirus developments, and tomorrow the decision will be announced to determine the date and time of its establishment. read SBF’s tweet.
FIBA has yet to issue an official statement on the matter, but if true, then such a stop is really difficult for teams like Gilas Pilipinas, who are supposed to fly to Doha on Saturday, February 13.
The Filipino dribblers, who are at the top of Group A with a clean 3-0 record, will face longtime rivals South Korea on the 18th and 22nd and enemies of Southeast Asia Indonesia on the 19th.
Apart from Group A, the Doha bubble will also host Group B made up of China, Japan, Chinese Taipei and Malaysia; and Group E with Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
This latest development comes after Chinese Taipei and Malaysia decided to pull out of the third window.
The Taiwanese decided to withdraw as he could not present at least 10 players for the match, while the Malaysian federation adhered to the recommendation of his country’s sports council not to send a team due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Previously, FIBA postponed matches between Guam and Hong Kong in Bahrain due to restrictions imposed by the host country due to COVID-19. The two were scheduled to play on February 19 and 21 in Manama.
