The Silverbacks, Uganda men’s national basketball team has finally travelled to Benguela, Angola to compete in the first window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 qualifiers.
On Tuesday, the basketball federation President Nasser Sserunjogi had announced that Uganda would not take part in the World Cup Qualifiers that start on Friday due to lack of funds as communicated to them by the National Council of Sports. The team needed approximately UGX 380 million to make the trip.
However at the eleventh hour, through the sports ministry, government stepped in and bailed out the team with all the needed funds for them to travel and compete.
The players that have travelled to Angola are; Jimmy Enabu, Tonny Drilleba, Ivan Muhwezi, Fayed Baale, Peter Obleng, Titus Odeke, James Okello, Mohamed Ghedi Abdihakim, Ben Komakech, Brandon Davies, Womala Emmanuel Timothy, Eric Rwahire and Robinson Odoch Opong.
The Silverbacks will kick off the qualifiers against Mali tomorrow November 26, and then Cape Verde and Nigeria on November 27 and 28 respectively in Group A.
The first window of the qualifiers – a three-day tournament, will take place in the Angolan city of Benguela with eight teams from Groups A and C vying for six places in the decisive Second Round of the African Qualifiers.
The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 African Qualifiers will be played over the course of 15 months (November 2021, February 2022, July 2022, August 2022 and February 2023) to define the continent’s five representatives in Indonesia, Japan and Philippines.
How African Qualifiers will play out; 16 teams and only five qualification slots.
First Round: Top 3 teams from each group will advance to Second Round of African Qualifiers to create two six-team groups.
Second Round of Qualification: Each team will play each new team in their group during two tournaments played over two event windows schedule in August 2022 and February 2023.
The two top teams in each group, along with the best third-placed team, will qualify to the World Cup 2023.
