FIBA has allegedly pulled the plug on the staging of the Doha bubble for the third window of the 2021 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers.
The Saudi Basketball Federation, which is one of the nations set to compete in Qatar, stated that the international governing body for basketball has postponed the games owing to the growing cases of COVID-19 in the Middle Eastern country.
Gilas Pilipinas is among the teams supposedly set to fly for Doha for the final series of games slated from Feb. 18 to 23 to determine the teams which will qualify for the continental tilt in August.
The Philippine team is scheduled to depart by Saturday, but there has been no updates if those plans will still move forward.
Fiba has yet to release an official statement on the status of the said games.
If true, the cancellation will affect the games for three groups in the qualifiers.
Set to participate in the Doha bubble are Group A, composed of Gilas, Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia; Group B, which features China, Japan, Chinese Taipei, and Malaysia; and Group E, which has Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and hosts Qatar.
Chinese Taipei and Malaysia have already announced their withdrawal from participating citing health concerns.
Fiba has also cancelled the game between Guam and Hong Kong due to the travel restrictions in place as the two teams were supposed to face off in the Manama bubble in Bahrain.
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