Mozambique drops out of Afrobasket qualifiers due to lack of funds

Moçambique desiste das eliminatórias do Afrobasket por falta de fundos

The Mozambican senior men's basketball team will not be playing in the second qualifying round for Afrobasket Angola-2025, which is scheduled to take place in Dakar, Senegal, between November 22 and 24.

According to a report in the newspaper Desafio, the information was confirmed on Tuesday (05) by the president of the Mozambican Basketball Federation (FMB), Paulo Mazivila, who said that the body he heads had sent a letter to FIBA-Africa on Sunday (3) informing them that the Mozambican national team was unavailable to take part in Group "A" for qualifying for next year's Afrobasket.

He explained that the FMB does not have the financial resources to send the team to Senegal. All the efforts made by the government and the business community to make the trip possible have been unsuccessful, which led Mazivila to inform FIBA-Africa in advance of his unwillingness to play in the qualifiers.

The fact is that if he didn't inform the team in time and a team wasn't found to take his place, Mozambique risked a two-year suspension and a fine of 50,000 dollars.

In place of Mozambique, FIBA-Africa included Morocco, which will now face South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mali.

After this month's qualifying window, the third and final one will take place in February 2025.

At the end of the competition, the top three teams will qualify for Angola's Afrobasket.

It should be noted that Mozambique has not competed in an Afrobasket final since 2017, when the tournament was co-organized by Senegal and Tunisia.

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