FIBA Executive Committee reflect on a busy summer and look forward to upcoming World Cup Qualifiers

MIES (Switzerland) – FIBA’s Executive Committee convened by video conference today. This is the third meeting of the year, following a busy summer of events including the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments played across four countries, the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cups for men and women which took place in Latvia and Hungary, nearly 50 3×3 events, the men’s and women’s Olympic Basketball Tournaments and the popular 3×3 Basketball debut for men and women in Tokyo, Japan.

The following key topics were discussed during the meeting:

FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 and FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers

A detailed report was received on the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 preparations and also on the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers upcoming window in November. With the draw now confirmed for the Qualifiers, the process of qualifying for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 will begin in a few months, with teams from each of the regions playing in six windows of qualifiers over 15 months. The Executive Committee confirmed the return of the regular format of the qualifiers for each continent, reserving the right for bubbles in certain sub-regions due to the pandemic.

FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022

The Executive Committee confirmed that a draw will take place following the conclusion of the Group Phase of the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 to determine the pairings of the Quarter-Finals and the path to the Final for the eventual world champion. The highly anticipated event will take place from September 22 to October 1 in Sydney, Australia.

FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022

The Executive Committee approved the change of date to the FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 in Hungary. The women’s event will now take place from July 9 to 17 in the city of Debrecen.

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Basketball Tournaments

Reports were received on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Basketball tournaments highlighting the success of the tournaments and the engagement of fans via FIBA’s digital platforms.

Club Competitions Updates

Updates were presented to the Executive Committee on the Basketball Champions League Qualifiers (BCL) currently taking place, with the BCL’s sixth season starting on October 4. An update was also presented on the Basketball Champions League Americas (BCLA), with plans underway to start the third season in December, and also a report was received on the Basketball Africa League (BAL). The BAL successfully concluded their delayed debut season earlier in May this year, with the 12 qualified teams playing their shortened season in Rwanda.

3×3

The Executive Committee received a detailed report on the 3×3 Olympic debut, which was a huge success with many media outlets covering all the action. Fan interaction on social media was extremely positive and various heads of state were in the venue to watch the action. A report was also given on the numerous other events that have been taking place on the busy 3×3 calendar this season.

For the 3×3 Women’s Series, prize money has been introduced this season to the winning teams as part of FIBA’s strategic priority of Women in Basketball with the goal to maximize the impact of 3×3 women’s competitions, and further measures were approved to increase the prize money for female 3×3 players. The 3×3 Women’s Series 2021 season tipped off in May and will conclude this weekend in Bucharest.

Strategic Objectives

Progress reports on the three strategic priorities of Empower National Federations, Women in Basketball and Enlarge FIBA Family were presented to the Executive Committee. Various successes have been achieved, including more than 80 National Federations now involved in the ‘Her World, Her Rules’ program in 2021, running projects at the national level across all five of FIBA’s Regions, and the increase of 50% more female referee candidates submitted during the most recent Game Officials Licensing (GOL) cycle. Additionally, FIBA published the FIBA PLUS Strategy and Planning Handbook, and to date, more than 15 National Federations have been involved in the FIBA PLUS Strategic Planning Program.