Joe Apu
The Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF has called off the planned international friendly match between the Chinese women’s national team and reigning AfroBasket champions.
According to the Vice President of the NBBF, Babs Ogunade, the planned friendly was called off on a second thought but fell short of admitting it was due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.
“Nigeria will not play China again but will still work out against the Partizan Belgrade cadet men team.”
The federation it was gathered decided not to go ahead with the proposed international game after a meeting of the board last week in Lagos.
Following the outbreak of the coronavirus, FIBA had confirmed that the FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament originally scheduled to be played in Foshan, China, will be played on the same dates, February 6 -9, 2020 in Belgrade, Serbia.
After having carefully evaluated the developments regarding the coronavirus outbreak and placing as main priority the safety of the participating players and team delegation members, the FIBA Executive Committee decided to relocate the tournament to Belgrade, Serbia, where one of the other three FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments will be played.
Besides the evident operational advantages that allow FIBA to offer appropriate conditions for such an important tournament qualifying for Tokyo 2020, entry into Serbia is possible without a visa for citizens of all 4 participating countries (China, Great Britain, Korea, Spain). The remaining two FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament will be played in Bourges, France, and Ostend, Belgium.