FIBA’s Central Board meeting looks ahead to eventful year

FIBA’s Central Board convened by video conference today for their first meeting of 2021. The following key topics were discussed during the meeting:

Successful FIBA Continental Cup Qualifiers
The Central Board received a comprehensive report on the impressive operational efforts from the FIBA Continental Cup Qualifiers recently played in February, with national team basketball taking place on all five continents, across 14 different cities, despite the ongoing pandemic. A concerted effort by FIBA’s Headquarters as well as Regional Offices in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania demonstrated once again FIBA’s capacity to organize operations safely on such a large scale during difficult times. The vast majority of all initially scheduled qualification games have been played in the meantime and, two continents, Europe and the Americas managed to have all teams qualified for the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 and the FIBA AmeriCup 2022. The few remaining games to qualify teams for the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 will be played between June 4 and 20 and for the FIBA AfroBasket 2021 between June 15 and July 5, 2021.

Updates on FIBA Competitions for 2021-2023 and the Olympic Games
Status reports were presented on preparations for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments tipping off June 29 in Canada, Croatia, Lithuania and Serbia, and the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in July. Updates were also provided on the FIBA Continental Cups taking place in 2021 and 2022, along with the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cups tipping off during the summer in Riga and Daugavpils, Latvia for the men and Debrecen, Hungary for the women. After receiving a report by the Medical Commission on the preparation of the new COVID-19 Protocol for FIBA Competitions, in cooperation with the NBA and the WHO, the Central Board underlined the importance of vaccination of participants in basketball events.

3×3 Basketball
An update of the 3×3 season was given to the Central Board, with the first stop of the World Tour currently being played in Doha, Qatar, from March 26 to 27, pictured above. The FIBA 3×3 Olympic Qualifying Tournament was recently confirmed and will take place from May 26-30, 2021, in Austria, along with the FIBA 3×3 Universality Olympic Qualifying Tournament being played from June 4-6, 2021, in Hungary.

FIBA U15 Skills Challenge 2021
Due to the success of the first edition of the FIBA U17 Skills Challenges 2020, the Central Board received a report on the preparations for the upcoming FIBA U15 Skills Challenges 2021. The format for the FIBA U15 Skills Challenges will consist of 32 participating teams per gender, with qualification open to all 213 National Federation members through Continental Qualifiers. These Qualifiers will take place during late April and early May in Africa, Americas, Asia/Oceania and Europe, with the FIBA U15 Skills Challenge 2021 set to take place in October.

Adopted provisions to Internal Regulations
The Central Board adopted new provisions on young players to better protect minors as well as the National Federations and clubs that identify and develop talents. The link between young players and the National Federation that developed them will now be stronger, as the players will be restricted from playing for the national team of the country to which they transfer until the age of 23. Similarly, FIBA’s right to intervene in case of compensation for young player transfers will now be reinforced, so as to protect the rights of clubs who develop players.

After 15 years of implementation of the Agent Regulations and following review by the Legal Commission, the Central Board approved certain modifications which are designed to empower the players in selecting representation as well as address situations of conflicts of interest. Amendments to the Agent Regulations will enter into force as of January 1, 2022.

National Federations
Mexico’s suspension is still maintained as the National Federation, despite progress made in recent weeks, has still not complied with the requirements set by the Executive Committee.

Other matters
The Central Board received updates on the three strategic priorities for the 2019-2023 cycle: Empower National Federations, Women in Basketball and Enlarge FIBA Family, as well as from the Players’ Commission and the FIBA Foundation. Also, the Board approved the audited consolidated financial statements for 2020.