Philippines one of hosts for next Fiba Asia Cup qualifying window

2021 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers draw. FIBA PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Following a successful November window, Fiba announced that the Philippines was chosen as one of the four hosts of the February competitions of the 2021 Asia Cup Qualifiers.

Clark, Pampanga will serve as the competition venues of Groups A, which includes home team Gilas Pilipinas, and Group C.

The Philippines, South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand comprise Group A while Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Guam are in Group C.

Clark has already proved that it can successfully house a sporting bubble when it hosted the PBA in the recently concluded 2020 Philippine Cup that Barangay Ginebra won.

“The most important criteria in choosing the hosts, like for the previous window, was health and travel guarantees and compliance with FIBA health protocols, including testing and controlled entry into a secure environment,” said Fiba in a statement in its official website.

Gilas had a successful November window with two wins in as many games against Thailand and are now atop Group A with a 3-0 record with South Korea at second with a 2-0 slate.

Indonesia is at third in the group at 1-2 while Thailand has yet to win with a 0-4 record.

Group C hasn’t had many games in itself with New Zealand holding the top spot at 2-0 and Australia coming in second at 1-0.

Guam and Hong Kong are both at 0-1.

Manama, Bahrain will return as one of the hosts this time for Groups D and F while Tokyo, Japan and Doha, Qatar will take care of Groups B and E, respectively.