Final FIBA voting result: China - 14, Philippines - 7

The final score: China - 14, Philippines - 7.

 

That was the result of the voting of the FIBA Central Committee for the host of the Basketball World Cup in 2019, according to a news release by the international basketball federation.

 

China's selection was announced on Friday after the two nations made final presentations in support of their respective bids.

 

"This was a very difficult decision because we had two national federations who did excellent work. However, there can only be one host country for our event in 2019 and it will be China," said FIBA President Horacio Muratore.

 

"We would like to congratulate both national federations for their outstanding work and bids. This is what we wanted: to have national federations put together top quality bids to host our flagship event."

 

China highlighted its experience in hosting top global sporting events including the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, and the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympics, as well as the large market of 1.3 billion people the country offers.

 

The Philippines, meanwhile, touted its people's passion for the game, as well as Filipinos' proclivity for social media, with fans making the campaign's hashtag #PUSO2019 a top trending topic worldwide during the presentation.

 

The China bid will see the FIBA World Cup in eight cities: Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan and Dongguan.

 

FIBA's flagship tournament will feature, for the first time, 32 teams competing. They will be selected through a 15-month qualification period that would see 140 teams battle in home-and-away games for berths in the World Cup. —JST, GMA News