By Amaechi Agbo

The Federation of International Baskeball Association, FIBA has confirmed that the qualifiers for the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games will hold between June and July next year, Bestchoicesports.com.ng can reports

After discussions with the International Olympic Committee, FIBA announced Thursday that the rescheduled men’s FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments will be played from June 29 to July 4, 2021. 

FIBA has been involved in a consultation process with the IOC regarding the four tournaments, in which the players’ workload, the national team preparations and the national league calendars were all considered.

FIBA said Thursday that the IOC has exceptionally approved the dates due to the factors and also the extraordinary circumstances that have occurred with the rescheduling of the Tokyo Olympic Games. 

FIBA President Hamane Niang and Secretary General Andreas Zagklis expressed their appreciation to the IOC President, Thomas Bach and the IOC Executive Board.

The four FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments are to be played in Canada, Croatia, Lithuania and Serbia, with the National Federations being awarded the hosting rights in 2019 by FIBA’s Executive Committee.

In total, 24 men’s national teams are set to compete in the four qualifying tournaments of six teams each, with seven teams already qualified directly for the Olympics from the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019, along with Japan as hosts. 

The draw for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments was confirmed during a ceremony at the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball, FIBA headquarters in late November 2019.

The winners of the four tournaments will qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games, now taking place from July 23 to August 8, 2021.