The head of the Arab Basketball Federation, Ismail Al Gergawi, confirmed the imposition of a fine of $10,000 on the Syrian basketball team, and forbidding it from participating in the upcoming tournaments until the fine is paid.
This came due to the announcement by the Syrian Basketball Association that the team withdrew hours after the draw for the 24th Arab Championship, which is currently being held at Al-Nasr Club in Dubai, which began on the eighth of this month and ends the day after tomorrow.
Al Gergawi, who is also the president of the UAE Federation, told Emirates Today, “The Board of Directors of the Arab Federation will meet tomorrow, to decide on the issue of the teams that withdrew from participating in the current tournament, after the federations of their country confirming the participating federations, namely the Syrian and Moroccan teams.”
“The regulations are clear regarding the teams that apologize after sending a final approval to participate, which is the imposition of a fine of no less than 10 thousand dollars, which will certainly affect the Syrian team, while depriving it from participating in the upcoming tournaments until the fine is paid. As for the Moroccan team, which apologized in the last moments due to The players of the national team were infected with (Corona), and the Federation of his country is required to submit official papers that prove that the players are actually infected with the virus in order to avoid punishment,” he added.
He explained, “The decision to withdraw at the last moments came as a surprise to us, and with unjustified excuses from my point of view, as the biggest loser is the large and enthusiastic Syrian community and the basketball lover in the Emirates, and the Syrian team and its new technical staff wasted the opportunity to play strong matches, which represents a preparation station. Before heading to participate in the Asian Championship qualifying for the World Cup 2023.
On the fourth of this month, the Syrian Basketball Federation announced the cancellation of the participation of the first team in the Arab Championship, which is hosted by Dubai, and the Federation said in a statement on its official page that the reason for the cancellation is in the (importance) of completing the preparations of the first team for the second phase of the Asian qualifying qualifiers for The 2023 World Cup, in which the Syrian national team will meet Iran and Bahrain on February 24 and 27.
For its part, sources close to the Basketball Association confirmed that the withdrawal from participation came as a result of pressure from the Executive Office of the General Sports Federation, headed by Firas Mualla, due to expectations that the Syrian team would receive severe losses if it participated in the tournament.
The Syrian Basketball Federation had contracted with Spanish coach Javier Juarez Crespo, where the players of the team organized an indoor camp in Al-Fayha Sports City in Damascus under the supervision of the new coach, with an average of two training sessions per day.
It is noteworthy that the Syrian national team is currently ranked third in the ranking of Group D in the first round of Asian qualifiers for the 2023 World Cup, with two points, two points behind Iran and Kazakhstan, who ranked first and second, respectively.
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