SHEFFIELD (Julio Chitunda's African Message) - By now we should know who the hosts of the FIBA AfroBasket Women 2017 will be.

A year after Senegal were crowned champions of FIBA AfroBasket Women in Yaounde, and with less than a year for the next African Championship, no candidates have publicly shown interest to host the tournament.

The question African basketball followers are asking these days is, ‘which country will host the AfroBasket Women 2017?’

Nigeria fans at Palais Polyvalent des Sports of Yaounde

In March 2014 - a year-and-half earlier - both Cameroon and Tunisia were confirmed as hosts of the 2015 African championships for women and men, respectively. I have attended both tournaments, and despite some security concerns both tournaments were a success in organisational terms.

Early this year, in March, FIBA Africa attributed the Republic of Congo the hosting duties of the FIBA AfroBasket 2017, while “the host of the FIBA AfroBasket Women 2017 will be decided later,” an official statement read. 

But seven months on, nothing has changed.

How much longer potential sponsors, travelling fans and players are going to need to wait to start preparing for the AfroBasket Women 2017?, None says, publicly.

With so many unanswered questions, the fact is that whoever hosts the next championship will certainly need extra time and support if it is to surpass Cameroon and Tunisia.

Some suggest that financial costs as well the competitiveness of the host country as the two main reasons to skip the hosting a tournament of the AfroBasket Women magnitude. Others go further suggesting that maybe countries aren’t prepared to deal with the disappointment of hosting a tournament and lose it in front of their fans.

Well, unfortunately, that is not far from true if we look back at the latest tournaments and analyse how the hosts did. With the exception of Nigeria who won in 2005, Cameroon (2015), Mozambique (2013), Mali (2011), Madagascar (2009) and Senegal (2007) hosted the last five editions of the tournament, and all failed to win at home.

As the only top 5 team in Africa that haven’t organised the tournament over the last two decades, and if they weren’t facing a financial crisis, Angola could be a perfect host.

On the other hand, Egypt, a team that showed in Yaounde with the youngest team, played well, stunned then African champions Angola, and showed tremendous competitiveness, could also be a perfect host. But, Egypt have their hands full with the hosting of the FIBA U19 World Championship.

If none of the teams mentioned above can come forward to organised the championship, then other non-traditional basketball countries should look at the positives of the hosting some of the best players from the African continent.

In the meantime, at club competition level, Africa Zone 5, which includes East African countries and Egypt, became the first to start the qualifiers for this year’s FIBA African Champions for Women to be held in Maputo, Mozambique. And clubs from Zones 1 and 6 are expected to follow suit later this month. This makes me believe that local clubs seem to be more committed to the popularity of the game.

Julio Chitunda
FIBA

FIBA's columnists write on a wide range of topics relating to basketball that are of interest to them. The opinions they express are their own and in no way reflect those of FIBA.

FIBA takes no responsibility and gives no guarantees, warranties or representations, implied or otherwise, for the content or accuracy of the content and opinion expressed in the above article.