The Kosovo Basketball Federation (KBF) on Saturday received a letter from FIBA, in which the latter made it clear that if the small gym at the Palace of Youth and Sports in Pristina does not reach the capacity of 3,000 (three thousand seats ), then matches for the European World Cup qualifiers "China 2019", our representative will not be able to play in the capital
FIBA has also warned KBF that on 20 and 21 September they will send Lubomir Kotleba, Adviser to the Secretary General of FIBA to inspect the small gym of the Palace of Youth and Sports in Pristina.
"Let me congratulate you on securing a place in the European World Cup qualifiers 'China 2019'. To be as prepared as possible for the November games, we would like to see the gym you presented on the platform. This will be done through an inspection visit and based on the information you have provided, the gym can not be approved if it does not meet all the necessary criteria.
The visit will serve to clarify whether the gym can be used or whether we can make an exception to using it and whether measures can be taken in order for the gym to be approved.
If some minimum requirements can not be met, there is a chance that you will be playing matches abroad until you have a suitable gym registered in your country.
Lubomir Kotleba, Adviser to the Secretary General of FIBA will visit Pristina on 20 and 21 September 2017, "FIBA's paper was quoted as saying.
In March, FBK had submitted for registration on the FIBA platform for qualifying matches, the small gym of the Palace of Youth and Sports in Pristina but this gym was not accepted by FIBA as it should have a capacity of 3,000 seats .
This information was taken officially by FIBA in May and immediately forwarded the same to the responsible institutions in our country, which from that time have not yet taken anything in this regard.
It should be noted that if no immediate action is taken in that direction, Representative A of Kosovo, which has recently achieved historic success by securing a place among the 32 nationals for the World Cup qualifiers, will be forced play abroad.
And, most likely, if this happens, Kosovo will not be able to play in Albania as the nearest neighboring country, as in Albania there is no gym with a capacity of 3,000 seats.
