France announce preliminary squad for November World Cup Qualifiers

PARIS (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers) - France have named the 15 players they want to have in training for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers, a list headlined by veterans Boris Diaw and Nando de Colo.

In addition to De Colo and Diaw, other members of the country's FIBA EuroBasket 2017 roster that have been named among the 15 are Antoine Diot, Thomas Heurtel, Edwin Jackson, Louis Labeyrie, Adrien Moerman, Vincent Poirier, Kevin Seraphin, Axel Toupane and Leo Westermann.

The FFBB have named nine other players that are eligible for selection and may be called into training if any of the nine members of EuroLeague outfits (Fabien Causeur, De Colo, Antoine Diot, Thomas Heurtel, Adrien Moerman, Vincent Poirier, Kevin Seraphin, Axel Toupane and Leo Westermann) are not released.

The players on standby are Axel Bouteille, Mouhammadou Jaiteh, Axel Julien, Alain Koffi, Lahaou Konate, Paul Lacombe, Mathias Lessort, Amine Noua and Elie Okobo.

The French Basketball Federation's national team director, Patrick Beesley, pointed out at Monday's press conference that FIBA's attempts at a compromise had been rejected by the EuroLeague.

"FIBA took the first step by proposing an alternative timetable in order to make the two calendars compatible," he said. "The idea is to allow the national teams to have the best players for the qualifying matches without impacting the EuroLeague games.

"To date, ECA (EuroLeague Commercial Assets) has declared itself unfavorable to this solution and thus deprives the national teams and the fans of their best players for a major competition of world basketball.

"We are nevertheless waiting to see if the ECA and the EuroLeague clubs will officially not release the players. It is with this in mind that we decided to call up the EuroLeague players and thus have the ECA and the (EuroLeague) clubs face their responsibilities."

France will open their World Cup Qualifiers First Round Group E campaign at Belgium on November 24 in Antwerp. On November 27, host Bosnia and Herzegovina on in Rouen. Les Bleus will not play the third team in Group E, Russia, until they host the EuroBasket bronze medalists on February 23.

FIBA