The organizing committee of the 35th Dubai International Basketball Championship has announced the participation of 10 teams in the competitions, which will start the day after tomorrow and continue until February 1st, at the Rashid bin Hamdan hall in the Al Nasr Sports Club. The number of participating teams increased from eight to ten over the past two days after the Syrian club Al-Wahda and the Libyan Al-Ittihad joined, along with the UAE national team, Al Nasr, Lebanese Beirut, Syrian Al-Karama and Al-Fadha, Libyan Al-Ahli Tripoli, Tunisian Africain, and Filipino Zamboanga. This was announced during a press conference held by the committee yesterday in the presence of the President of the UAE Basketball Federation, Chairman of the Higher Organizing Committee of the Championship, Abdul Latif Al-Fardan, and the Federation's Secretary-General and Tournament Director, Salem Al-Mutawa, as well as the Chairman of the company 'En Generation Events', organizing the tournament, Naji Al-Jabri, along with members of the organizing committee and representatives of sponsoring companies. The organizing committee clarified that the participating teams were divided into two groups. Group A included the UAE national team, Al Nasr, Al-Fadha, Homs and Al-Wahda (Syria), and Al-Ittihad (Libya). Group B included Beirut (Lebanon), Al-Karama (Syria), Africain (Tunisia), Al-Ahli Tripoli (Libya), and Zamboanga (Philippines). Abdul Latif Al-Fardan stated that the Dubai International Basketball Championship has, over more than three decades, continued to solidify its position as one of the most prestigious tournaments in the game on both Arab and regional levels, to the point that its name is now synonymous with the city of Dubai as a regional and international sports destination. In turn, the head coach of the UAE national team, Muneer bin Al-Habib, believes that participating in the Dubai International Basketball Championship represents an important preparatory stop within the program to prepare the team for the Gulf Games, scheduled to be held in Qatar next May.
