Wednesday’s announcement from the four countries leaves Ukraine as the only candidate for the biennial event. A host nation is expected to be announced on Sunday. “France, Germany, Italy and Croatia withdraw with immediate effect from the bidding process for the EuroBasket 2015,” the French Basketball Federation said in a statement. “This decision was made unanimously by the four presidents of the bidding countries due to immense doubts regarding the professionalism and the lack of trust in the bidding process conducted by the European Basketball Federation, FIBA Europe.”
Jean-Pierre Siutat and Ingo Weiss, presidents of the French and German federations respectively, added: “We rely on values such as good governance, compliance, and transparency and base our decisions and our actions on these values. This is our responsibility towards our partners, sponsors and ourselves and with this decision we assume this responsibility.”
Responding to Wednesday’s news, a FIBA Europe statement read: “FIBA Europe has been informed of the decision of the national basketball federations of Croatia, France, Germany and Italy to withdraw their joint bid for hosting EuroBasket 2015. The Board of FIBA Europe that convenes at the weekend in Munich, Germany will examine the statements that were issued by the four federations earlier today and will issue a reply as appropriate.”
Spain won this year’s edition of the EuroBasket in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas after defeating France 98-85 in the final. The 2013 event is set to take place in the Slovenian city of Ljubljana.