By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The official announcement about the latest decisions of the FIBA Central Board included a pleasant surprise.
FIBA has announced that “the games of Window 1 and Window 2 of the FIBA Continental Cups 2025 Qualifiers will be, as was the case also after the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019, merged and played in February 2024”.
While the numbers of qualification games remain the same and the February Window will be longer, the logistics for a possible agreement between the EuroLeague and FIBA can be arranged in a much easier way.
It has to be noted however that there’s no agreement with the EuroLeague in place, nor any indication that the EuroLeague schedule will accommodate the qualifiers. However, this decision by FIBA can be a first step in this direction.
The following key topics were also discussed, per the press release:
FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023
The Central Board received status updates on the ongoing preparation for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, which included the change of venue for the Final Phase and the Opening Round games in Manila, along with all the activities that occurred over the weekend for the official Draw of the flagship event. Draw results for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 can be found here.
FIBA U19 Basketball World Cups 2023
Reports were received on the ongoing preparations for the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2023 to be played in Hungary and the FIBA U19 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2023 to take place in Spain, with this year’s edition of the U19 Women’s World Cup premiering the newly approved glass flooring court.
Paris 2024 Olympic Games
Following the decision to award five host countries for this summer’s FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournaments, the Central Board has granted automatic qualification to the French women’s and men’s national teams for the Olympic Basketball Tournaments of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
For 3×3, the top-ranked French team between women and men will receive automatic qualification to Paris 2024.
FIBA Women’s Continental Cups 2023
Status updates were received on the preparations for this year’s Women’s Continental Cups, including the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2023, FIBA Women’s Asia Cup 2023, FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2023 and the FIBA Women’s AfroBasket 2023. These events will qualify teams to the FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments as well as to the newly created FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup Pre-Qualifiers that will be played for the first time with 16 teams in the summer of 2024.
3×3
After awarding the first Universality FIBA 3×3 Olympic Qualifying Tournament to Israel, a status report on the current 3×3 season was presented, with the first event for the year, the FIBA 3×3 Asia Cup 2023, recently taking place in March. Tipping off in May, the upcoming FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series will break records once again, visiting more than 20 different cities.
Other Matters
The Central Board has approved the FIBA audited and consolidated financial report 2022.
The Central Board has taken note with satisfaction that the mortgage loan on the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball has been fully reimbursed in November 2022.