Scandal at the Women’s Basketball World Cup: two Malian players beat each other in a mixed zone

The basketball players took blows in the mixed zone

The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) announced on Tuesday that it had opened an investigation after a dispute between two Malian players at the Women’s Basketball World Cup in Sydney, described as “madness” by the leader of the team, who apologized on behalf of the team.

On Monday, just after the fourth loss in as many games for Mali against Serbian (81-68), which meant their elimination in the group stage, two players, Salimatou Kourouma Y Kamite Elisabeth Dabou, They came to blows in the mixed zone of the Olympic Park Sports Center, where media and athletes meet, before being separated by teammates.

Everything was recorded by a group of journalists who were conducting an interview with a Serbian basketball player, who was surprised by the reaction and even had to take a few steps away to avoid being hit, while violence took over the place.

“FIBA acknowledges that there has been an altercation between the Malian players in the mixed zone. As a result of this incident, an investigation has been opened. FIBA will decide to take any possible disciplinary measures once the investigation is over.”, indicated in a statement the body, whose president, Hamane Niang, is Malian.

On Monday, the leader Touty Gandega He indicated on his Twitter account that the team wanted to “apologize to the Malian people and the African people.” “Well… I would like to point out that it is not the image we wanted to convey, not at all. God knows we get along and this is a slip that unfortunately we would have wanted to avoid. We want to apologize to the Malian people and the African people,” Gandega tweeted. “I know it’s crazy what happened but the girls deeply regret their behavior,” she added.

The 13 Malian players were present on Tuesday during the warm-up and then on the bench against Canada, in Mali’s last World Cup match (88-65 loss), confirmed the AFP.

With information from AFP

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Scandal at the Women’s Basketball World Cup: two Malian players beat each other in a mixed zone