© BELGA
FIBA has imposed sanctions on Russia and Belarus in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the World Cup in Australia, the Belgian cats will not compete against Russia in the first round, but against Puerto Rico.
Patrick Seulmans
After the decision made on March 1, 2022 and confirmed by the Central Council on March 25, 2022, not to allow Russian teams and officials to participate in basketball and 3×3 basketball competitions, the Executive Committee of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) today issued the following decisions regarding the Russian Basketball Federation (RBF) and the Belarusian Basketball Federation (BBF) for the FIBA basketball competitions to be held in the coming months.
Until further notice, no official basketball competitions will be held in Russia or Belarus. Teams of Russia and Belarus will be withdrawn from the following FIBA national team competitions, among others:
FIBA 2023 Basketball World Cup Qualifiers: The Belgian Lions are not against Belarus
Russia will withdraw from Group H and Belarus will withdraw from Group B in the FIBA 2023 Basketball World Cup European Qualifiers, with no replacement teams appointed. All results of the two teams will be voided and the rest of the group will advance to the second qualifying round with 4 matches to be played. In order to rank teams uniformly in these two groups (H and G; A and B), first-round matches against teams seeded last in Pool G and Pool A will not be taken into account for division into groups L and I. The Belgian Lions, who will play against Serbia and Estonia at the end of June and the beginning of July are almost certain to qualify for the crucial preliminary round of the World Cup and will be in Group A with Turkey, Britain and Greece in addition. to Serbia and Latvia.
FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022
Russia is withdrawing from the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, which will be held in Australia from September 22 to October 1. The alternative team is Puerto Rico, as decided last March in light of the circumstances surrounding the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 qualifiers in Washington, DC, and therefore Puerto Rico will be in the first group with the Belgian cats, Bosnia, America, China and Korea.
Teams of Russia and Belarus will be withdrawn from the following national team competitions FIBA 3×3
The Belgian Lions won the European Championship and European club competitions on Friday
At the European Championships in September for men, the Belgian Lions also belong to the Russia group. The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the European Basketball Champions League Council have been invited to take decisions corresponding to the national team and the respective club competitions, which will be announced in the coming days. Therefore, Russia will not be allowed to participate in the European Championship. The Belgian Lions will be known as a substitute for Russia next week. FIBA will continue to monitor the situation closely and take further decisions if necessary.
