- 10
- Feb.
- 2025
The “engines” of the Lebanese national basketball team will officially roar again with the team's participation in the games of “Window 3” and the last of the Asian Cup qualifiers, to be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from August 5 to 17, with the participation of 16 teams from the world's largest continent.
The Lebanese championship will take a break of around ten days. In detail, the Lebanese national team delegation will leave next Thursday for the Qatari capital Doha to take part in a four-team friendly tournament to be held on February 14, 15 and 16, with Lebanon, Qatar, the Philippines and Egypt, who are also preparing for the Asian and African qualifiers. The Lebanese national team will be looking to win the friendly tournament against the three teams, who will be playing with mostly top-class players.
The Lebanese national team will not be under any pressure, as they have already qualified for the Asian Cup finals after winning all four of their matches without defeat, topping the standings in Asian Group 6, which includes Lebanon (8 points), Bahrain (6 points), Syria (5 points) and the United Arab Emirates (5 points). Lebanon will play its first match in the “last window” of the qualifiers against the Bahraini team in the capital Manama on Friday, February 21, before concluding its participation in the qualifiers by meeting the United Arab Emirates team at the Nouhad Naufal sports complex (Zouk Mikael) on Monday, February 24, in two easy assignments for the Lebanese team, where the coach of the Lebanese team, Miodrag Perisic (of Serbian nationality), will try to field a large number of players after securing qualification.
The match between Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates will be played on Lebanese soil, after around a year since Lebanon played its last match at home and in its arena in front of its large public. The war had prevented the Lebanese team’s confrontation with the UAE in the first leg on its ground last November, and the host country was changed from Lebanon to the United Arab Emirates.
Taking a close look at Group 6, Lebanon is ranked 29th in the world and 5th in Asia, while Bahrain is ranked 67th in the world and 11th in Asia, Syria is ranked 71st in the world and 13th on the continent, and the UAE team is ranked 104th in the world and 22nd in Asia, according to the latest International Basketball Federation (FIBA) rankings published on November 26.
The difference between Lebanon and each of Bahrain, Syria and the United Arab Emirates seems enormous, given that Lebanese coach Jad el-Hajj is the coach of the Bahrain team, which will meet its Lebanese counterpart on February 21. Hajj has already coached the Lebanese team to second place in the Asian Cup in the last edition held in Indonesia, after Lebanon lost the final to champions Australia by just 2 points in Jakarta, and emerged with their heads held high with Lebanese player Wael Arakji chosen as the tournament's best player.
El-Hajj also led Lebanon to the Dubai team tournament title two years ago.
The odds are in Lebanon's favor to win their two official matches against Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon will finish the qualifiers at the top of the final group standings.
In addition, during the visit of the Lebanese Basketball Federation, chaired by Akram Halabi, to Baabda Palace last week and his meeting with the President of the Republic, General Joseph Aoun, Halabi updated President Aoun on the mood of Lebanese basketball and the desire of the Lebanese Federation to grant nationality to a top player to join the Lebanese team for the Asian Cup and grant nationality to a female player to join the women's team.
The sport of basketball is progressing steadily in the Lebanon with a promising season, a year full of activities, from the friendly tournament in Qatar to the games in the final window of the Asian qualifiers for the Asian Cup next August, and the Lebanese team will be looking to compete for the top spots, having already won second place in 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2022, and this time aiming to embrace the first-place cup.
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