TIANJIN, CHINA — The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) has made a formal bid to host the 2011 FIBA-ASIA Championship in Manila.

“We already presented our formal written bid to FIBA-Asia,” said SBP executive director Noli Eala after meeting several officials of the FIBA-Asia here.

The 2011 edition will be the qualifying tournament to the 2012 London Olympics.

“It seems that the Philippines have a very good chance of wining our bid in 2010. They’ve already ruled out several cities and they feel that it’s time for the Philippines to host,” added Eala, who arrived here last Thursday to support the Powerade-Team Pilipinas competing in the FIBA-Asia Championship, the qualifying for next year’s World Championship in Turkey.

According to the former PBA commission, FIBA-Asia is expected to announce its decision by the end of the year.

Aside from the Philippines, Lebanon and Jordan have also expressed interest in hosting tournament.

Iran is also interested host the qualifying tournament, but FIBA officials may shoot down their bid because of political uncertainty.

“We understand that Iran was interested but in our discussion it seems to us that they (FIBA-Asia) are already ruling out Iran because of the political situation,” Eala said. “They say that China cannot be because they already hosted now. I know that Japan is not interested, Korea is not interested.”

“So the only other bidders that they are considering are Lebanon and Jordan, which they are not very comfortable with because of the political situation. So with that, it seems to me that Manila has the inside track,” he added.

Eala said that FIBA-Asia officials from Korea, Japan, as well as from four other Middle Eastern countries, have already pledged support in the SBP’s bid to host the event.

FIBA-Asia president Sheikh Saud Bin Ali Al-Thani also expressed his support, Eala said, saying: “We’re very confident that with the statement of Sheikh, who is in full support of us, FIBA-Asia will give it to us after almost 40 years.”

The last time Manila hosted the FIBA-Asia, which was then called Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC), was in 1973 where the Philippines won the gold medal.