By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
FIBA officially announced that the new general statutes were approved by the extraordinary world congress which was held this weekend in Istanbul. To be exact, according to Eurohoops sources, 198 votes were in favor of the changes and there was also a white vote.
However the most interesting part is what those changes mean. The new general statutes empowers FIBA to take global decisions which will be accepted by the regional zones federations without the ability to be denied, like it happened with the negative decision of FIBA Europe for a four years Eurobasket competition cycle. Also the world federation is firm on scheduling national team qualification games during winter and spring – an idea opposed by the NBA and Euroleague – according to the calender approved last November in Buenos Aires by FIBA central board.
Greek federation president George Vasilakopoulos, who is also the former president of FIBA Europe, was the head of the committee which created the new general statutes. The new status quo means also that FIBA is trying to impose to FIBA Europe a four years Eurobasket cycle.
It’s also a given that the next FIBA World Cup will be held in 2019, five years after Spain 2014, in order to avoid coinciding the same year with FIFA World Cup. That makes things even more complex, since under the current FIBA Europe competition structure, 2019 was a Eurobasket year. On the contrary, according to the new FIBA calender after Eurobasket 2017, the next FIBA Europe tournament will be held at 2021.