THE Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) is still awaiting Fiba's decision on its cancelled match against Korea in the Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers currently being played in the Manama, Bahrain bubble.
SBP president Al Panlilio said there is no word yet on Gilas Pilipinas’ match against Korea that was supposed to be held in the Bahrain bubble until its federation decided against sending a team to the qualifiers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think Fiba will decide on that after the window,” said Panlilio on Friday on the sidelines of the Philippine Olympic Committee elections where he was elected first vice-president of the national Olympic body.
“They haven’t told us anything except ‘yung calendar and we will play Thailand lang. They wanted us to play Indonesia actually but sabi lang namin, we are just following competition schedule. We were really supposed to play them in February so we’d rather play them in February instead,” said Panlilio.
Gilas Pilipinas is fresh from a smashing 93-61 win over Thailand on Friday to tie Korea in Group A of the competition. The top two teams in each of the six groups will automatically advance to the competition proper in 2021.
Korea is facing forfeiture in the match for not making the trip, but Panlilio doesn’t want to speculate on Fiba's ruling, saying he also understands that the current circumstances are difficult.
“Again, it’s Fiba’s decision but technically, from any tournament, kapag may scheduled game, kapag hindi sumipot ‘yung kalaban, jumpball, score two points, and then forfeit. Normally ganyan. I think Fiba is looking at the bigger picture. A lot of teams are affected. Very unusual times kasi. Hindi naman ito regular time na hindi sila nakarating. There’s a real reason for the pandemic,” said Panlilio.
Unlike Korea, the Philippines made an effort to reach out to the government particularly the Inter-Agency Task Force to make Gilas Pilipinas’ participation – from practices to the actual trip to Bahrain – possible, Panlilio said.
“Same with China. I don’t think they had a ruling like us that came from the government and really went to the government and asked for permission. The Korean federation and the Chinese federation decided not to participate,” Panlilio added.
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