MVP guns for World Cup ’23

After failing to win hosting rights for the 2019 Fiba World Cup, SBP chair emeritus Manny V. Pangilinan will try again.

Pangilinan and the SBP are now setting their eyes on the 2023 World Cup.

Last November, SBP sent representatives for a two-day briefing at Fiba’s headquarters, the House of Basketball, in Mies, Switzerland. The briefing was attended by 12 countries that want to bid for the hosting of the Fiba event.

The briefing reportedly focused on the bid and host requirements.

Aside from the Philippines, the other interested countries are Argentina, Turkey, Serbia, Russia, Poland, Japan, Israel, Hong Kong, Germany, Australia and Uruguay.

Qatar, which earlier signified its intention to host, did not send representatives.

Argentina hosted the World Cup twice—in 1950 and 1990, Philippines in 1978, Uruguay in 1967, Japan in 2006 and Turkey in 2010.

The Fiba Central Board will review the applications on Jan. 27 and 28 in Mies.

Pangilinan is scheduled to attend the applications review in his capacity as one of the members of the powerful 24-man Central Board.

In 2015, through the initiative of the SBP, the Philippines joined the bidding war for the hosting of the 2019 Fiba World Cup.

SBP’s presentations built around the Filipinos love and passion for basketball were impressive. Even the hashtag #PUSO2019, a social media campaign, was very effective.

But Fiba was not impressed and awarded the hosting to Asia’s economic powerhouse China.

Some experts say one of the reasons why the country failed in its offer to host the 2019 World Cup was its bad relationships with the world basketball body.

The country was banned from all international competitions by Fiba during the dark ages of the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) because of internal squabbles.

But after the successful hosting of the 2013 Fiba Asia Championships and the 2019  World Cup losing bid and now that MVP is a bonafide member of the powerful Central Board and has a good relationship with the Fiba hierarchy, we may be able to see the 32 teams from different parts of the globe strutting their wares in front of the Filipino people in 2023.