Stories By Gbenga Jolaosho
with agencies
Basketball world governing body, FIBA Africa has announced Bamako and Maputo as host for Groups B and D of the FIBA 2019 World Cup African Qualifiers. Group B consisting of Mali, Nigeria, Uganda, and Rwanda will play their first round qualifiers in the capital city of Mali, Bamako while Group D consisting of Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, the Central African Republic and Mozambique will slug it out in Maputo.
The two First Round tournaments will run from February 23-25, 2018.
Groups A and C first round qualifiers was played last weekend in Yaounde and Luanda, respectively.
Top-three teams of each group will advance to the decisive 12-team round of the qualifiers, which will see teams play home-and-away games. The teams that finish bottom of their respective groups will be eliminated.
Over a four-year cycle from 2017 through 2021, national teams will play regular official games to qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 and the FIBA Continental Cups 2021.
The windows for the World Cup qualifiers are November 20-28, February’s 19-27, 2018, June 25-July 3, September 10-18, November 26-December 4 2018 and February 20-28 2019.
