Korea’s bid in booking a slot in the FIBA World Cup is in peril.
FIBA is set to declare the first four games of Korea in the 2023 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers as forfeitures.
On Tuesday, the Korea Basketball Association decided to pull out its men’s basketball team from the competition set to take place at the SMART Araneta Coliseum from February 24-28 as one of its pool members yielded a positive RT-PCR test. All players were declared close contact.
Over the past year, FIBA’s decision regarding this matter has been firm.
During the 2021 FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2021 Qualifiers, North Macedonia, despite citing a COVID-19 outbreak as the reason for their non-participation, was disqualified from joining the tournament.
The rationale behind it is that the three other members of the pool were able to field a team.
Once declared forfeited, Korea will enter the third window of the Qualifiers from June 30-July 3 with a 0-4 record with all four games having a 20-0 scoreline. Moreover, Korea will not earn a single classification point in those four games (Wins are two points while losses are a point).
Remaining games for the Cho Sanghyun mentored squad are New Zealand on June 30 and India on July 3.
Gilas, the Tall Blacks, and India will begin the Quezon City window with 2-0 records.
The last time Korea missed the World Cup was back in 2010. They finished 23rd and 26th, respectively, in the 2014 and 2019 editions of the global meet.
