The International Basketball Federation (Fiba) announced on Tuesday that it had opened an investigation after a fight between two players from Mali at the Women’s World Cup in Sydney.
An event described as “crazy” by the leader of the selection, who apologized on behalf of the group.
Monday, just after Mali’s fourth defeat in four games, synonymous with elimination in group stages, against Serbia (81-68), two players including Salimatou Kourouma came to blows in the mixed zone of the Olympic Park Sports Center , where media and players meet, before being separated by teammates, noted an AFP journalist.
“Fiba recognizes that there was an altercation between Malian players in the mixed zone (…). Following this incident, she opened an investigation. Fiba will decide to take any possible disciplinary action once it is over,” the body, whose president, Hamane Niang, is Malian, said in a statement.
Monday, the leader Touty Gandega had indicated on her Twitter account that the selection wanted to “apologize to the Malian people and (the) African people”.
“Well… I want to make it clear that this is not the image we wanted to convey, really not. God knows we get along well and there is unfortunately a skid that we would have liked to avoid! We would like to apologize to the people of Mali and to the people of Africa,” Gandega tweeted.
“I know it’s CRAZY what happened but the little ones 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, Mali’s last match at the World Cup, AFP noted.
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