Nigeria - NBBF withdraws bid for African Championship
With few hours left for the host country for the 2011 Africa Nations Basketball Championship to emerge, the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has announced its withdrawal from the race to host the continental event. Speaking to Trustsports yesterday, the NBBF president, Mallam Tijani Umar, said the decision to step down the bid was necessitated by the inability of his federation to meet up with the demands of FIBA-Africa which requested for additional financial guarantee.
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With few hours left for the host country for the 2011 Africa Nations Basketball Championship to emerge, the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has announced its withdrawal from the race to host the continental event.
Speaking to Trustsports yesterday, the NBBF president, Mallam Tijani Umar, said the decision to step down the bid was necessitated by the inability of his federation to meet up with the demands of FIBA-Africa which requested for additional financial guarantee.
He explained that the continental body had called to request for a financial guarantee to the tune of 1.5million euros and exclusive marketing right for the championship.
Umar said, "Before now, Nigeria had guaranteed far less than what the body is presently asking for and considering the recent dissolution of the federal cabinet, there will be no ministerial backing to pursue the Bid to a logical conclusion."
He added that since the federation lacks the capacity to guarantee the additional financial request by FIBA, it has stepped down its bid to host the championship.
According to him, there are strong indications that Cote d'Ivoire and Madagascar who are in the race for the hosting right have agreed to provide the much needed financial guarantee unlike Nigeria which offered far less.
He said: "Last night I got a call from FIBA asking us to make financial guarantee of up to 1.5million euros. Before now, Nigeria guaranteed far less than the new amount and it was in dollars but they want it in euro.
"It appears countries like Cote d'Ivoire and Madagascar have agreed to step up their financial guarantees in euro as requested by FIBA. Our case has been made worse by the recent change of cabinet as there is no ministerial weight to make the necessary adjustments in our Bid".
Umar said now that his federation has stepped down its Bid, it will now concentrate fully on how to raise formidable male and female teams for the 2011 Africa Nations Championship which serves as qualifiers for the 2012 Olympic Games.
"Since we can not make additional financial guarantee, we have stepped down our interest to concentrate fully on preparing our two national teams for the 2011 Championships which will serve as qualifiers for the 2012 Olympics in London. At the moment, we are more worried about our participation than hosting. We have therefore, stepped down officially," he declared.
Meanwhile, the country to host the 2011 Africa Nations Basketball Championship will be announced either today or tomorrow.