Gilas Pilipinas: Bahrain to host remaining 2021 FIBA Asia Cup qualifying games

Gilas Pilipinas will be traveling to Manama, Bahrain to complete the rest of their 2021 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers games for the November 2020 window.

FIBA has confirmed in its website that instead of the traditional home-and-away format, all games will take place in host cities for safety reasons as not the entire world has recovered yet from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The most important criteria in choosing the hosts were health and travel guarantees and compliance with FIBA health protocols, including testing and controlled entry into a secure environment.”

The Philippines has played only one game last February, beating Indonesia, 100-70 behind a group composed of pros and amateurs.

For the November window, Gilas was supposed to face Korea once and Thailand twice. However, Korea has pulled out off the “bubble,” citing health concerns for their players. They will not fly to Bahrain.

They were originally going to host Thailand at the Mall of Asia Arena last February, but the game was suspended due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Per a report, Isaac Go, Mike Nieto, Matt Nieto, Rey Suerte, Allyn Bulanadi, Jaydee Tungcab, Juan Gomez de Liano, and Javi Gomez de Liano are part of the pool for the said window.