By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
It’s one thing to speak on behalf of a group of people, who say they want a change and a totally different thing to have an official request, in order to get what you want. In our case to overthrow FIBA Europe’s government and call for new elections. And this is what made all the difference at today’s FIBA Europe’s General Assembly, in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana.
Mindaugas Balciunas, the general secretary of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation, said 28 of 51 FIBA Europe’s federations-members want to call for a conference, so they can have elections, a new president and a new board, with – as he said – people who will actually defend in the best way their rights.
FIBA Europe president, Olafur Rafnsson replied that according to the articles of association, 15 federations are enough to officially ask for a conference, but they need to send their request, from their headquarters, with the signature of their presidents on official papers. And if/when they will do that, the elections will take place within the next 60 days.
So, nobody says we won’t have elections (on the contrary, this is something that everybody is talking about), but the rules are very precise. And if/when they will do that, nobody knows what will happen, at the end. You see, there is no precedent for a motion of censure and everything is matter of interpretation.
What really matters is that we don’t have yet any decision from FIBA Europe about the proposed four year cycle of competition and the only result from the General Assembly is this press release. In the meantime former FIBA Europe secretary general Nar Zanolin seems ready to legally challenge his dismiss from the federation.