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| Gilas will be hosting the Group A games for the first two windows of the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers. FIBA/Paul Ryan Tan (file photo) |
MANILA--The Philippines has been given the right to hold a bubble for the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
In a statement on Wednesday night, FIBA said that the Philippines, which will mainly host the World Cup itself in 2023, will be staging a bubble event for the Group A games during the February 2022 window.
"The Group A games scheduled for the November and February 2022 windows will be played in the Philippines during the period of the February 2022 window," FIBA said in a statement.
This means the games supposed to be played next month, including two showdowns between Gilas Pilipinas and South Korea, will be played in February along with the already scheduled games for the February window, which would have Gilas taking on India on Feb. 25 and New Zealand on Feb. 28.
The whole February window will run from Feb. 24-28, putting the Group A teams in the possibility of playing four games in five nights.
The Group A games are not the only matches to be played in a bubble as the November window games between Japan and China will be hosted by the former in Sendai.
"Japan will host two Group B games of the November window of the Asian Qualifiers in Sendai: China-Japan on Nov. 27 and Japan-China on Nov. 28," FIBA further said.
The other two teams in Group B, Australia and Chinese Taipei, will not play in the November window and instead, their clashes will take place in the February window.
On the other hand, the games in the West Zone, the Group C and Group D games, will be played in a home-and-away format.
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