Qatar's basketball team faces isolation amid ongoing crisis
The U-17 national basketball team of Qatar travelled to Turkey to play a few practice games for the Gulf Countries Cup after some countries refused to play against the team.
The image shows members of Qatar's national basketball team who arrived in the city of Zhongning as it continues its summer basketball tour of China. July 24, 2017.
Qatar's Under 17 (U-17) national basketball team travelled to Turkey on July 23 to have a chance to play a few practise games for the Gulf Countries Cup after some countries refused to play against Qatar.
The U-17 team has been facing isolation as the Gulf countries have severed relations with Qatar since June 5, using various ad hoc sanctions.
"We have a partnership with Turkey [since] more than 20-30 years ago. We always come to Turkey to play in camps. All the facilities are nice. You can find all levels of basketball here and ... the culture is very close to Qatar ... So everything was easy and helpful for our team," said Khalid Almogany, Qatar U-17 team manager.
— Qatar Basketball FD (@qatarbf) July 28, 2017
The team played ball in Istanbul until 31 July.
TRT World's Peter Franks explains how sports teams have found themselves in the middle of the Qatari row.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Bahrain cut relations with Qatar and imposed measures, accusing it of supporting terrorism based on its ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and the Taliban.
But Qatar has denied the accusations.
Diplomatic efforts led by Kuwait and involving the US and Turkey have failed to end the row.
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