The chances of Nigeria’s national basketball team, D’Tigers, playing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games suffered a major setback due to the withdrawal from the Paris Olympics AfroBasket qualifiers over lack of funds from the government.
The AfroBasket qualifiers are scheduled to begin on Friday, February 22, in Tunisia and as of Wednesday night members of the team are yet to book their flight tickets.
D’Tigers on X (formerly Twitter) handle @NigeriaBasket on Wednesday said they were withdrawing from the AfroBasket Qualifiers over insufficient financial support.
“Despite several 2020 Olympians committing, D’Tigers will forfeit this AfroBasket Qualifiers window due to lack of funds from the government,” the D’Tigers said on its official X account on Wednesday.
“D’Tigers invited players are awaiting their flight tickets to Tunisia. The AfroBasket qualifiers begin on Friday.”
D’Tigers, 2015 champions are drawn in Group B of the 2025 AfroBasket qualifiers alongside Cape Verde, Libya and Uganda, and are due to participate in the qualifying tournament scheduled for Tunisia on Friday.
Recall that the D’Tigers almost missed out on participating in the 2019 FIBA World Cup due to a lack of funds until a late intervention by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Due to the leadership crisis at the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), the Federal Government in May 2022 announced the withdrawal of Nigeria from all international basketball competitions for two years.
