Malta Basketball Association to host men’s small nations championship in 2022

The Malta Basketball Association has been given the responsibility by FIBA to host the European Championship for Small Countries in 2022.

The continental championships bring together the basketball countries in the lower-tier of the European basketball to face each other and the Malta national team will be hoping they can strike success in front of the home crowd.

In a statement, FIBA said that the championships will be held between June 28 and July 3 at the Ta’ Qali Pavilion.

“The European Championship for Small Countries 2022 will be hosted in Ta’ Qali, Malta while Nicosia in Cyprus will organise the FIBA Women’s European Championship for Small Countries,” FIBA said in a statement.

“Both events will be played between June 28 and July 3, 2022.”

While the early indications show that the tournament will be contested between six to eight countries, however, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic during that time of the year will have a huge say on who will be travelling to Malta for these championships.

The championships were last held this year in Dublin, Ireland. Initially, the tournament was scheduled to be organised in 2020 but was first cancelled and then postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Dublin, it was the hosts Ireland who took the honours when they managed to top the standings to claim the gold medal for the second time in their history. Andorra took the silver medal ahead of the Malta national team who had to settle for the bronze medal.

Malta have enjoyed success in the tournament, particularly in 2018 when they won the gold medal in the tournament held in San Marino in 2017