SBP gears up for hosting important tilt

The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) wants to host two major regional tournaments next year to convince Fiba, the world governing body for basketball, to allow the country to stage a more important tournament in 2011.

SBP deputy executive director Bernie Atienza told the BusinessMirror on Thursday that the federation will bid for the hosting of the Southeast Asian Basketball Association (Seaba) Women’s Championship and the Fiba-Asia Under-18 Men’s Championship.

Hosting the two tournaments, Atienza said, is part of the SBP’s grand plan to convince Fiba-Asia officials to award the hosting of the 2011 Fiba-Asia Men’s qualifier for the 2012 London Olympics.

“These are the major tournaments that the SBP is hoping to host and MVP [Manny V. Pangilinan] pointed out that we have to show the Fiba-Asia officials that we are capable of hosting these events,” said Atienza.

The Seaba Women’s Championship will be in June 2010 and according to Atienza, the country has a good chance of bringing the tournament here because no other country has offered a bid.

Hosting the Fiba-Asia U-18 tournament, however, is more tasking because Lebanon, Syria and Yemen have expressed interest in staging the tournament where a team under Eric Altamirano will take part in.

Atienza said the SBP will submit its bid for the 2011 Fiba-Asia tournament to the Fiba central board even before the December 30 (2009) deadline.

“We’re just preparing our presentation and we are also just waiting for the invitation of the executive board of the Fiba-Asia for the presentation,” he said.

The country hosted the Fiba-Asia Men’s Tournament in 1978. It was known then as the Asian Basketball Confederation Championship.

Atienza said Iran and Lebanon are also interested in hosting the tournament that will select the continent’s representatives to the 2012 London Games.

Iran is the reigning Asian champion after it beat a Yao Ming-less China in Tianjin. Iran and Lebanon are going to the World Championship next year in Turkey. The Lebanese were given a wild-card entry for finishing fourth in Tianjin.

The country previously targeted the hosting of the Fiba-Asia Champions Cup but the tournament’s schedule (May 7 to 14) will coincide with the 2010 national elections.