Only two bids remain for the 2023 International Basketball Federation (Fiba) World Cup after Russia became the second country to pull out of the race this week.
Andrei Kirilenko, the president of the sport’s national governing body in Russia, blamed the “current attitude of the global sporting community towards Russian athletes.”
Russian athletes are waiting to hear whether they will be allowed to compete at the 2018 winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, with the International Olympic Committee having commissioned two reports on allegations of state-sponsored doping in the country surrounding the 2014 Games in Sochi.
On Tuesday, Turkey confirmed that it would be pulling out of the bidding process in order to focus its resources on developing the sport in the country. The remaining two bids are both joint offerings, with Argentina and Uruguay taking on Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.
“We did a lot of work and had a good experience,” Kirilenko added following the announcement. Russia had earmarked Kazan, Moscow, Perm and St Petersburg as host cities for the tournament.
