Report: FIBA not expected to change format despite Australia's loss
On the day the U.S. gets ready to tip off against Serbia in the FIBA World Cup final comes a report from Eurohoops.net in which the league's secretary general said no changes are expected to be made to the tournament's format despite criticism following Australia's controversial loss this summer.
Australia had led by 10 at the half vs. Angola in the final game of pool play but the team benched its starters after it became clear that Australia would likely face reigning FIBA champion Team USA earlier than expected. FIBA launched an investigation, Slovenia's Goran Dragic of the Phoenix Suns publicly called Australia out for it, but now FIBA's secretary general Patrick Baumann said no changes to the format will come despite the controversy.
More from Eurohoops:
Eurohoops posed the question about the ongoing investigation, asking also if a draw after the end of the group phase in order to determine the couplings for the rest of the competition could be a future solution and the answer of Baumann was the following, implying that what happened in Spain can be used as an example for the future: “As you know there are open proceedings for this case. The point is that something like this can’t happen again in the future. As for the draw, we are happy with our current format and we are not expecting to change it."
- Marc Weinreich
