05 August 2008
Afrobasket 2009: Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Togo for Zone-3 Elimination
The battle for which of the three countries that will represent FIBA Africa Zone-3 begin today in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire with Nigeria and Togo waging war on the host country for a place in Libya next year.
Eight countries (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Liberia and Togo) were initially billed to take part in the week long elimination series but information gathered from Yamoussoukro indicate that only three countries out of the eight are on ground for the battle ahead.
Most of the countries that pulled out of the qualifiers sited lack of fund as the reason why they are not part of the zone fiesta.
Host Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria are however, favoured ahead their Togolese counterpart but if what befall the likes of Nigeria and Senegal at the 2007 FIBA Africa Championship for Men in Angola where they failed to reach the semi-finals is anything to go by then both Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria must be at their wit end to survive Togo.
The opening game will be played this evening at 19:00 hours between Côte d’Ivoire and Togo.
By Olusegun Ikuesan
Eight countries (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Liberia and Togo) were initially billed to take part in the week long elimination series but information gathered from Yamoussoukro indicate that only three countries out of the eight are on ground for the battle ahead.
Most of the countries that pulled out of the qualifiers sited lack of fund as the reason why they are not part of the zone fiesta.
Host Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria are however, favoured ahead their Togolese counterpart but if what befall the likes of Nigeria and Senegal at the 2007 FIBA Africa Championship for Men in Angola where they failed to reach the semi-finals is anything to go by then both Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria must be at their wit end to survive Togo.
The opening game will be played this evening at 19:00 hours between Côte d’Ivoire and Togo.
By Olusegun Ikuesan
# posted by afrbk : 16:40
