- Sponsored -
Massive quarrel ensues in Australia, Philippines Basketball game
The World Cup qualifying match between Philippines and Australia turned into an intense fight. Australia were cruising towards victory with a 79-48 lead before Philippines guard Roger Ray Pogoy hit Australia’s Chris Goulding with an elbow. This ignited a flurry of individuals in the middle lashing out kicks, punches and throwing objects in a massive quarrel.
- Sponsored -
It was a horrifying incident with players, officials and some fans getting involved in the sickening nuisance. Even a chair was seen thrown towards players. Tension, fear and violence was seen everywhere across the Basketball arena. Match referee halted the game for around 30 minutes and it resumed in an unusual manner as Philippines could filed only three players as a result of suspensions post the massive quarrel.
Also read: LeBron James agrees to join Los Angeles Lakers in $154m deal
International rules state that games must continue unless a team only has a single player available. Eventually Australia won the unpleasant game by 89-53 points.
“Basketball Australia deeply regrets the incident in tonight’s match between the Boomers and the Philippines in Manila. We are extremely disappointed with what happened and our role in it. This is not the spirit in which sport should be played and certainly not in the spirit in which we aim to play basketball. We apologise to our fans and will await the penalties to be handed down. This morning Moore said the focus for management after the brawl was to ensure the players returned to the hotel from the stadium safely. Player safety was paramount last night and after the incident, until the time that we actually departed the stadium. Our group was in a position where they were fearful for their physical safety.”, said Basketball Australia chief executive Anthony Moore.
The International Basketball Federation also responded quickly on the fierce incident, saying that further punishments will be handed down in due course to the players indulged in the massive quarrel.
- Sponsored -
