This year’s Africa Basketball Championship (AfroBasket) has continental super power Angola as the new host following the unforeseen withdrawal of the Republic of Congo as host of the biannual competition.
AfroBasket 2017 takes place between August 19-30. FIBA Africa made the decision in Bamako, Mali at a congress.
The decision to give Angola the hosting rights was due to Congo’s inability to host due to logistical reasons.
The reason is perplexing considering Congo showed it was serious to host the competition and had a standard venue to do so.
In 2015, the country’s shining new sport edifice, Kintele Stadium, successfully hosted thousands of athletes during the 11th African Games which had Angola emerge winners in the basketball competition. Egypt and Nigeria won silver and bronze respectively.
As a result of the change in host, a Wild Card slot has opened up for teams who missed on qualification including Zambia, Cape-Verde and Chad to compete in the tournament; Rwanda and Guinea benefited from this to make the championship roster.
This will be Angola’s forth time hosting the Championship after doing so in 1989, 1997 and 2007.
By Yaw Adjei-Mintah
@YawMintYM on Twitter
