LEBANON, Germnay, Lithuania and Russia awarded wild cards

[lebanese_raver]

ISTANBUL, Turkey (FIBA World Championship) - During today's meeting of the FIBA Central Board - the highest executive body of the International Basketball Federation - the following teams were awarded wild card entries to next year's FIBA World Championship in Turkey:

* Germany
* Lebanon
* Lithuania
* Russia

The decisions were made in accordance with the criteria outlined by the FIBA Central Board. The wild card system was first introduced for the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan, following the decision to increase the number of teams from 16 to 24.

With the four wild cards joining the 20 qualified teams, the following teams go into the hat for the draw that will take place on Tuesday 15th December (11:30AM local time / 10:30AM CET) in Istanbul:
Angola
Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Canada
China
Croatia
France
Germany
Greece
Iran
Ivory Coast
Jordan
Lebanon
Lithuania
New Zealand
Puerto Rico
Russia

Serbia
Slovenia
Spain
Tunisia
Turkey
USA

For last minute accreditation for the draw, please contact the Turkish Basketball Federation at sancars@tbf.org.tr.

The draw will be covered live on turkey2010.fiba.com.

The 2010 FIBA World Championship will be played in Turkey in the cities of Ankara, Kayseri, Istanbul and Izmir between 28th August and 12th September 2010.

About FIBA

FIBA (http://www.fiba.com), the world governing body for basketball, is an independent association formed by 213 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. It is recognised as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Its main upcoming events are the 2010 FIBA World Championships for Men and Women, to take place in Turkey and in the Czech Republic respectively. This summer, the 2009 Continental Championships determined the champions of each continent and also determined the teams from each continent that qualified automatically for Turkey and the Czech Republic.



(the last one is a special Lebanese way of celebrating )

[[IN]Head-Kay]

Awesome news!!

I thought this was a lost cause for a while!

[Nicktalopia]

Just saw the news
Really happy for Lebanon !!

[lebanese_raver]

We do deserve it, i am soo happyyy.

[ziz00_909]

WLAK EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

[Genesis]

We're still good at basketball? SWEET!

[TranceFusion]

Cool! At least you guys are good in basketball cuz in footy it's a disaster

[A-Cube]

You call a team that has to nationalize an American center every couple of years and look for every possible guy originating from Lebanon good?? No, the team is bad. Really bad. You don't deserve to be at the world cup when you finish at the Asian championship with a 5-4 record. You don't deserve to be at the world cup when your local league starts at the end of December. You don't deserve to be at the world cup when your game is ran by an incompetent federation. But since the FIBA was nice enough to give us this card (probably because we wouldn't stop yapping about how the ref fucked up in the semi-final while we should have won against Jordan twice), might as well take it. I hope we will be drawn against the USA. Another excuse to make it to Turkey this summer.

[Fawzi]

^Are you Kamil in disguise?!

Haha, but seriously, you have a point. Regardless of the performance of the team, which I don't really follow, but I thought that the nice thing about international sports is that money does not play a major role here.

When you consider football, there's no more identity at club level. Not when Inter has more South Americans in its line-up than it has Italians, or that Chelsea have around 4 or 5 African players, etc... I could go on about all the major teams. What matters is the result, and when you have money, you can buy the best players instead of having a good nucleus of local players.
This is different in international sports. You can't buy the good players: you have to train them. Argentina & Brazil are very poor, but consistently produce the best players, because here money doesn't work.
Although I think it's low to pay foreigners money for them to play in your national team, I guess if I look beyond it, I wish the lebo team the best of luck. Hope this wildcard waste

[Raneem]

[[IN]Head-Kay]

[rob]

I'm happy they gave the team a wild card, but Cube has a point, this is probably the weakest Lebanon team of this decade, far from the glorious qualifications of 2002 (16 team world cup) and 2006.

Nejme sucks, go Shabeb el se7il!

[[IN]Head-Kay]

[Nicktalopia]

Lebanon was disqualified on purpose so they deserve the Wild card to get a second chance.
It's just a sport and basketball is just a game, let the people have something to feel happy about after all the shit and dissaspointments this country has been through.
On a side note did you guys hear that there are plans backed up by the lebanese PM to host a Brazil (confirmed so far) Vs either Germany or Argentina soccer game in Lebanon? The event will take place in Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium.