The Italian Basketball Federation decided not to play against the Russian national team in the qualification match for the 2023 World Cup due to a full-scale military invasion of the aggressor country in Ukraine.

This was announced by the President of the organization Giovanni Petrucci.

" I'm really disappointed and didn't think it would go this far. It was not enough that almost all international federations excluded Russia from the competition and that CAS confirmed the provisions adopted on this occasion by the Italian Football Federation, even the IOC recommendation was not enough, which, obviously, was mistaken for a "

There's a war going on, what else has to happen?

Did FIBA \u200b\u200bthen estimate that in the second phase of qualification for the 2023 World Cup there could be two matches between Russia and Ukraine? I don't see what can change from today to May.

It is clear that athletes are not responsible in this regard.. We have decided that the national team will not play the fifth match of the first qualifying round of the 2023 World Cup against Russia, scheduled for July 1, 2022.

A similar decision was made by the Federations of the Netherlands and Iceland, both of which are part of the same group as us,"