Lagos — The President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) Mr. Tijjani Umar has expressed his disappointment over the wild card selection made by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). During last Saturday's meeting of the FIBA Central Board - the highest executive body of the International Basketball Federation - in Geneva, Germany, Lebanon, Lithuania and Russia were awarded wild card entries to next year's FIBA World Championship in Turkey.

Despite Nigeria's good showing at the 2006 edition, neither the country nor any other African country was given the card. Cameroon and Senegal were also in the race for the card.

"This is a question of giving honour to the highest bidder. The issue of genuine basketball encouragement and development has been put under the table which is very sad. Nigeria has the potential to do well at the championship in Turkey - we have the record to show for that. But then if you are not considering Nigeria why not encourage Africa by picking any other country that has shown interest with quality players across the world leagues. To say the least, I am highly disappointed," Umar said.

The wild card system was first introduced for the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan, following the decision to increase the number of teams from 16 to 24. Japan 2006 marked Nigeria's second appearance at the World Championship following the debut of Greece 1998. Nigeria lost in the second round by a single point to a Germany powered by NBA's Dirk Nowitzki.

Nigeria finished fifth at the 2009 African Nations Cup in Libya and thus failed to sure a direct entry.

With the four wild cards joining the 20 qualified teams, the following teams go into the hat for the draw that will take place today (Tuesday) (11:30am local time/10.30am CET) in Istanbul: Angola, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, France and Germany. The others are Greece, Iran, Cote d'Ivoire, Jordan, Lebanon, Lithuania, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Russia and Serbia. There are also Slovenia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey and USA.