FIBA Executive Committee get set for exciting line up of events in February

FIBA’s Executive Committee convened by video conference today for their first meeting of 2022. The meeting came on the eve of a busy month with two important world cup qualifying events in February – the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 Qualifying Tournaments and the second window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers, as well as the FIBA Intercontinental Cup 2022.

Below are the main takeaways from the meeting.

Status reports were presented on preparations for the upcoming FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 Qualifying Tournaments tipping off on February 10 in the cities of Washington D.C., Belgrade and Osaka. Two games will also be played in Santo Domingo due to travel and health restrictions in the USA. Preparations also on the upcoming second window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers were received, with 92 games to be played across the FIBA regions starting on February 24.

Updates were also given on the current preparations underway for the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2022 and the FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022. The men’s event will take place in Spain from July 2 to 10 and the women’s in Hungary from July 9 to 17.

Status reports were presented on the ongoing preparations for FIBA’s flagship women’s events, the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022.

After reviewing the current women’s competition system, and with a view to offer a sufficient number of competitive games to emerging National Federations, the Executive Committee has accepted the recommendation of the Competitions Commission to implement a new competition that will act as pre-qualifiers to the next World Cup or to the next Olympic Games. The 16 best-placed teams, four from each region, that did not qualify for the FIBA Women’s World Cup, or the Olympic Games respectively, will participate in the event to be played every two years starting in August 2024. The winner of this competition will directly qualify for the next Qualification Tournament, either for the World Cup or Olympic Games.

Following a recommendation by FIBA’s Competitions Commission, and in order to extend the period between the last game of the fourth window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 European Qualifiers and the first day of the FIBA EuroBasket 2022, the games of the fourth window of the World Cup qualifier will be moved forward by one day, being played on August 24 and 25 (Gameday 1) and then August 27 and 28 (Gameday 2). This change will allow teams to have at least three days before the start of the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 on September 1.

The Executive Committee heard updates from the Basketball Champions League (BCL) and the Basketball Champions League Americas (BCLA), with both leagues currently in progress. A status update on the preparations for the upcoming FIBA Intercontinental Cup 2022 was given, with the event to take place for the first time in Africa, in Cairo, from February 11 to 13. With a spectacular draw ceremony held in front of the Giza Plateau in Egypt in January, this year’s edition is poised to further enhance the tournament’s unique transatlantic status by becoming the first club competition in basketball history to feature contenders that will be representing four different regional leagues.

The Executive Committee has approved the new calendar for 2023 to 2027.

Due to the increased duties of FIBA Executive Director Oceania David Crocker, who was appointed Director of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 in 2020, the Executive Committee has approved the appointment of Amanda Jenkins as Acting FIBA Executive Director Oceania.