Officials of Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) are already making plans for next year’s FIBA Basketball World Cup draw, which is billed to hold in Shenzhen, China.
However, sports247.ng can report that NBBF will be busy in Africa before the draw in March, as the final window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifiers will take place from February 18 to 26 to complete the 32-team field.
Though Nigeria’s team, D’Tigers have already qualified, they are still obliged to go out against Senegal, Cote D’Ivoire and Central Africa Republic in the last round of Group D games, as 26 countries battle for the final 14 places remaining.
The basketball World Cup will run from Saturday, August 31 to Sunday, September 15, ahead of which the draw will hold on on Saturday, March 16, 2019.
The draw, which will be presented by Wanda, a Chinese multinational conglomerate based in Beijing, will take place in Shenzhen, one of the eight host cities of FIBA’s showpiece men’s competition.
The draw procedures for the 32 participating teams will be made public in the days leading up to the special event, for which Nigeria and 17 other countries have already booked their place.
The other countries are host China; Angola, Tunisia; Argentina, Canada, USA, Venezuela; Australia, Korea, New Zealand; Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Spain, Turkey.
