Jordan will be ‘five-star host’ of FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers

AMMAN — The International Basketball Federation’s (FIBA) Regional Office Asia has confirmed that Jordan will host part of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers in June.اضافة اعلان

Jordan will be the venue for the games of Group E and F, to take place in Amman from June 12–14, while the games of Group A, B, and C will take place in Clark City, Philippines from June 16–20, according to a FIBA Asia statement.

The matches were postponed in February due to restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Organized in “protected environment tournaments in order to ensure the health and safety of all participants, these games will determine the 10 teams that will join Bahrain and Lebanon, already qualified for the event,” the federation said. 

The 16 teams list of FIBA Asia Cup 2021 will be completed with four additional teams through the Qualifying Tournament for third-ranked teams of the six groups that will take place between 12–14 August 2021, in Jakarta, according to the statement.

Group E includes the national teams of Syria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Jordan falls in Group F, competing with Kazakhstan, Palestine and Sri Lanka. Four matches are left for the national team, AKA the Nashama Hawks, after a recent tournament in Bahrain was put off due to the pandemic.

Jordan, which is temporarily in the tail of the list, is to play Palestine twice and each of the two other teams once.

The Jordan Basketball Federation has announced on its Facebook page that it would apply “very strict precautionary measures to minimize the movement of participating teams to be limited to the airport to the isolation hotel and Prince Hamzah Hall,” where the games will take place, in addition to frequent PCRs to prevent any possible spread of COVID-19 among the participating delegations.

For his part, Secretary of the Jordan Basketball Federation Nabil Abu Ata stressed in remarks to Jordan News that Jordan is well prepared for the event. “We will be a five-star host, reflecting Jordan’s image as a historically good organizer and a rational host in managing crises.”