Bubbles for FIBA Qualifiers: The Question of Where

The bubble that the National Basketball Association (NBA) has put up in Orlando, has become a model that other sports leagues are trying to replicate. The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is set to hold a bubble season in Clark, Pampanga next month as long as it gets the go-signal from the government. There's also the ongoing talks of a bubble set-up for the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) to finish the 2019-2029 season. It seems that everyone wants to have their own bubble to get basketball going again amidst the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (C0VID-19) pandemic.

The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) on Friday announced that all of its continental qualifiers, including the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers, will be played in bubble environments. In a statement released to the public, FIBA explained, "All games of both windows should be conducted in ‘bubbles’ instead of home and away games with the agreement of the host (country) public health authorities and in compliance with FIBA health protocols," The federation also added that a bubble will be allotted for one qualifying group. This means that Gilas Pilipinas, Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand who make up the Group A of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers will be playing in a bubble for their November 2020 and February 2021 games although FIBA also mentioned the possibility of having two groups in one bubble.

Who will host the said bubbles is something that is going to be decided at a regional level. And that's not the only decision that FIBA needs to make as Gilas Pilipinas' first-round game against Thailand last February was postponed due to the pandemic and there's no word yet as to when it will be rescheduled. 

Earlier this month, FIBA inquired on the possibility of Rwanda hosting three qualifying groups for the 2021 AfroBasket Qualifiers. The AfroBasket Qualifiers have five groups all in all. 

Photo is from FIBA