Basketball in Africa

Today’s fixtures

Classification match
Nigeria vs Ivory Coast – 12.00

Quarter-finals (Amahoro)
Algeria vs Egypt – 2pm
Gabon vs Mozambique – 4pm
Rwanda vs Tunisia – 6pm
Angola vs Mali – 8pm

THE junior hoops have Nigeria and Congo Brazzaville’s mischievous acts to thank for helping them inch into the last eight of the Afrobasket U-18 Kagame Cup.

According to the head of Fiba-Africa’s technical committee Alphonse Bile, the two countries were penalised for fielding over-age players in Godfrey Moses (Nigeria) and the pair of Itoua Makouana and Euloge Sosthene for Congo Brazzaville’s Red devils.

In accordance with Fiba-Africa’s regulations of united competition (RUC), article 6 and 36 were breached.

It is clearly spelt out in chapter II of article 6 that teams have to field players who fit into the given age bracket. They also have to respect the body’s statutes-something that was clearly violated on this occasion.

It is also emphasised in article 36 that it is the responsibility of federations to field eligible players.

In reaction to the breaches, the technical committee has suspended the players in question. It has also stripped the two sides of all the points for matches which featured the trio.

This means that Mali are now atop group A with 10 points, Mozambique are second with eight points, while Rwanda and Algeria follow closely in third and fourth place with seven points apiece. Rwanda beat the North Africans on point’s difference.

Congo is fifth with four points while Nigeria lies at the bottom with zero points after fielding Moses in all their matches.

Quarter-final clashes

While Algeria and Egypt meet in a North African derby and Gabon battle a re-energized Mozambique side, Rwanda hope to finally come good against Tunisia who finished second in group B.

The last quarter-final tie pits Angola against Mali.