FIBA Asia Executive Director Hagop Khajirian announced on Friday evening that the Philippines will once again re-host the final window of the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers.
The statement of Khajirian was posted by Coaches Unfiltered’s Charles Tiu.
Guess we will be having our Gilas games after all here in Clark! Awesome. Kudos to the SBP! Just a matter of when. pic.twitter.com/noCODqGjd3
— Charles Tiu (@charlestiu) February 12, 2021
“Fixing the dates of the ‘windows to be created’ under this unexpected and extraordinary situation will still need about 10 days to be finalized,” read Khajirian’s statement.
“However, we have already decided to have these games in the Philippines, where the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas will host two groups, and in Lebanon, where the Lebanon Basketball Federation will host a group.”
Early Friday morning, Qatar, host of Groups A, B, and E games from February 17 to 23, was forced to cancel its hosting due to the rising cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.
Group A consists of the Philippines, South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand; B composes of Chinese-Taipei, Japan, Malaysia, and China; while E has Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
According to Khajirian, “four national federations already expressed their support to FIBA to host one or more groups in their country to play the canceled games.”
The Philippines was originally set to host the third window of Group A and C that has Australia, New Zealand, Guam, and Hong Kong. However, the travel ban imposed by the country led to the hosting transferring to Qatar.
Games were supposed to take place at the AUF Sports & Cultural Center in Angeles while lodging will be at Quest Hotel in Clark.
