Tunisia and Senegal to host FIBA AfroBasket 2017

FIBA Africa has finally confirmed that Tunisia and Senegal will jointly host FIBA AfroBasket 2017 from September 8-16.

Sunday, July 02, 2017
The national team finished third at this year's FIBA Zone V championship in Egypt missing an automatic qualification for AfroBasket. File

FIBA Africa has finally confirmed that Tunisia and Senegal will jointly host FIBA AfroBasket 2017 from September 8-16.

The continental basketball governing body confirmed yesterday after Republic of Congo and Angola withdrew from hosting the biennial event.

Initially the event was supposed to hosted by Congo in Brazzaville from August 19-30, however she withdrew from hosting the event citing logistical issues hence FIBA Africa board gave the hosting rights to Angola which also later pulled out from hosting.

In a statement released by FIBA Africa on Saturday, they revealed that this year’s hosting rights have been jointly given to Tunisia and Senegal where the 16 participating teams will be divided into four groups of four in the Group Phase (September 8-10), with Senegal's capital city of Dakar hosting two groups and Tunisia's capital city of Tunis hosting the other two.

Rwanda will compete at this event on a wild card after failing to seal automatic qualification after losing to Uganda in the semi-finals of Zone V Championship that took place in Egypt in March.

The top two teams from each group will advance to Tunis, which will also host the Final Phase (Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and Finals) from September 14-16.

The bottom two teams from each group in the Group Phase will be knocked out of the competition.

The participating teams are: Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia and Uganda.

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