Nigeria senior men’s team D’Tigers faces a limbo at the current 2027 FIBA Basketball World Cup African Qualifiers in Luanda, Angola as the team is reported to be on brink of being expelled from their hotel due to failure to pay accommodation and participation fees.
The funding problem came on the heels of the Nigeria side having an impressive qualifying window so far, beating Tunisia 84-81 in their opening game of the qualification tournament with new head coach David Fizdale.
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The win lifted slim hopes of the team to qualify but administrative and financial issues threaten to prove a problem to the campaign now.
Payments for hotel accommodation, competition fee and players’ travel costs are yet to be cleared up, according to reports, and officials involved in the team’s involvement are still waiting to settle hotel bills.
A source close to the International Basketball Federation ( FIBA) said the Nigerian squad was facing the threat of being barred from their hotel, or their tournament designations, if the debt the team is owed to the federation is not remunerated soon.
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The qualifiers will be sponsored by the National Sports Commission (NSC) and the administration of the team will be vested in the custodianship of National Sports Commission (NSC) which is managed by the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF).
According to reports, till then neither body had made a public statement on the payment situation, but officials were supposed to attend the ceremony in Luanda to discuss the issue.
The financial statement follows a crucial time during the qualifiers as Nigeria must secure success on the scoreboard to bolster their hopes of securing a spot at the 2027 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Qatar.
This reportedly continued to happen at previous international tournaments, as the team arrived late to the match.
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Yet, despite the off-court troubles, D’Tigers are still concentrating on qualification while the stakeholders are keeping its fingers crossed that the administrative issues would get resolved before they come into play with regards to Nigeria’s attempts at participating in the tournament.
