Last night FIBA released a statement advising a number of events have been cancelled or postponed due to the ongoing developments of the COVID-19 virus, which included the cancellation of the FIBA U16 Asian Championships.
Boys’ and girls’ New Zealand representative teams were scheduled to compete at these events, in attempt to finish within the top four teams in Asia to qualify for the FIBA U17 World Cup later this year.
Due to the cancellation of the U16 Asian Champs, FIBA have resorted to updating the World Rankings overnight to decide which top four teams in Asia will qualify for the World Cups.
Unfortunately the New Zealand girls team was ranked sixth in Asia, one place behind Chinese Taipei. This means they will not proceed to the U17 World Cup this year. The girls’ FIBA U17 World Cup draw has been released overnight.
The boys ranking points sees New Zealand equal with Japan at 27 in the world. This means they are in contention for the final spot at the World Cup. FIBA are yet to state which of these teams will qualify, but Basketball New Zealand is set to discuss this situation in a meeting with FIBA and the Japanese Basketball Federation this evening.
Player welfare and safety for our teams remains our priority and we will continue to follow guidance from health experts and FIBA.
