By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
FIBA EuroBasket 2015 was the first edition of Europe’s premier basketball competition to be organised by multiple hosts. The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 could follow suite and take place in more than one country.
FIBA’s Executive Committee convened a meeting on Tuesday 7 June, during which it approved the bidding process for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.
That edition of FIBA’s flagship event has the potential to be the first organised by and staged in more than one territory after FIBA’s Central Board came out in favour of receiving bids from multiple host countries.
Moving forward with the process, FIBA will send requests for expression of interest to all of its national member federations this month. Those wishing to be taken into consideration must confirm their interest by 31 August. Following the Applicant Phase and the Candidate Phase, FIBA’s Central Board will ultimately announce the host(s) of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 at its end-of-year meeting in 2017.
The Executive Committee received reports on the status of FIBA’s regional offices. It gave the green light to the construction of new headquarters for FIBA Africa in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, while also approving the project of establishing operation offices of FIBA in Singapore to assist more directly the development of ASEAN countries.
With regards to FIBA’s new competition system, the Executive Committee was informed that all regional offices have taken part in workshops with national federations ahead of its implementation in 2017. In parallel, as part of the FIBA National Federations Long-Term Development programme, more than 100 national federations have been visited and this number will reach 150 by the end of the year. Following every visit, a customised development strategy is proposed to each national federation, with the aim of implementing concrete development tools/programmes in collaboration with the national basketball governing body concerned.
The goal is to develop the national federations’ event management capacities, marketing and communication skills – as well as the technical level of national teams and the necessary work with grassroots – in order to help them maximise the impact of their participation in the new competition system and achieve a sustainable long-term growth.
Finally, the Executive Committee approved a process to replace Mr Xiao Tian (China) and Mrs Julia Anikeeva (Russia) as members of the FIBA Central Board.