Major General M. Ismail Al- Karqawi, President of the Arab and UAE Basketball Federations, gave an important and bold talk to the Nile Sports Channel, in which he dealt with the most prominent challenges facing Arab basketball and the Arab Federation’s keenness to implement its programs despite some obstacles facing some competitions, foremost of which is the women’s national team championship that was held for the last time in Cairo Six years ago, Al- Karqawi also stopped at the Dubai International Championship, which celebrates its thirty-third anniversary next January. And since the irregularity of the women’s national championship was the main focus of the dialogue, the President of the Arab Federation explained that his federation does not bear this responsibility first, because attention is focused on club championships more than national teams, and this is a fact that is not hidden from anyone, as evidenced by the large number of participants in the women’s and men’s club championships compared to what It happens in the national team championships. The second point, Al-Karqawi said, is that the women’s championship faced difficult circumstances. After its establishment in Cairo in 2017, we entered the Corona phase, which affected all sports activities in the world until the championship returned to the fore, despite the small number of participating teams. Here we must thank the Egyptian Federation, led by Dr. Magdy Abu Freikha, for helping us to hold the championship and providing all the conditions for success for it, despite the absence of ancient teams such as Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia and Syria. Speaking about the regularity of the Arab Federation’s programs, Al- Karqawi thanked all the presidents of Arab federations for their cooperation, pointing out that the stage will witness three tournaments in Marrakesh- Morocco, Doha and Cairo, in addition to the Dubai International Championship. Al- Karqawi emphasized on his Federation duty to hold its competitions at its time to let the clubs and Arab national teams benefit and to have a clear imprint of the Arab basket in the continents of Asia and Africa, and he added that the Gulf and Arab clubs benefited from their participation in the Wasl Asian Super Basketball Championship, which provided the required contact with different schools in the continent of Asia. When asked about the preparations for the Dubai International Championship, he said The UAE Federation signed a contract with Sama Company for organizing events specialized in this field to sponsor the tournament in cooperation with Prisma for Public Relations Management, pointing to the early preparations to receive this major international event, which has become a landmark in the Middle East region.
العربية