Kosovo risks playing abroad

The Kosovo Basketball Federation (FBK) on Saturday has received paperwork from FIBA, in which it has made it clear that if the small gym in Pristina's Youth and Sports Palace fails to reach 3,000 (three thousand seats), then matches for European World Cup qualifications “Kina 2019x2>, our representative will not be able to play in the capital.

FIBA has also warned The FBK will send Lubomir Kotleba, adviser to FIBA Secretary General to inspect the small gym of the Youth and Sports Palace in Pristina, on September 20th and 21st.

Allow me to congratulate you on securing a country in European qualifications for the World Cup, China 2019. To be as prepared as possible for the November matches, we would like to appreciate the gym you presented on the platform. This will be done through an inspection and information visit you have provided, but the gym cannot be approved unless it meets all the necessary criteria.

The visit will serve to clarify whether the gym can be used or whether we can make exceptions to exploit it and whether the measures can be taken so that the gym can be approved.

If some minimum requirements cannot be met, there is a possibility that you will play fights abroad until you have adequate registered gym in your country.

Lubomir Kotleba, adviser to FIBA Secretary General, will visit Pristina on September 20th and September 21, 2017<18x0>, the FIBA letter was quoted as saying.

The FBK in March had submitted it for registration on the FIBA platform for qualifying matches, the small gym of the Youth and Sports Palace in Pristina, but this gym was not accepted by FIBA, as it must have capacity of 3,000 seats.

The FBK had officially received this information from FIBA in May and has immediately conveyed the same information to responsible institutions in our country, which since then have yet to take anything in this direction.

It should be noted that if no immediate measures are taken in this direction, then Kosovo's Representative A, who has recently achieved historic success by providing a seat among the 32 nationals for the World Cup qualifications, will be forced to play abroad.

And according to all likelihood if that happens, Kosovo will not be able to play either in Albania, as the first neighbouring state, as there is no gym with a capacity of 3,000.