30th April, 2012
Federation of International Basketball Association, FIBA, will later today convene its first Central Board of 2012 at Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and the meeting will culminate with the draw for the Olympic basketball tournaments.
Basketball pundits across the world will focus their attention on the draw for the Olympic Basketball Tournaments for Men and Women that will hold at the Auditorium of the Brazilian Olympic Committee.
So far nine men’s national teams; Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Great Britain, Spain, Tunisia and USA and seven women’s national teams; Angola, Australia, Brazil, China, Great Britain, Russia and USA, have already qualified. The remaining eight places; three men’s and five women’s teams will be determined through the Olympic qualifying tournaments taking place in Caracas, Venezuela and Ankara, Turkey late June-through early July.
Other events on the agenda of the Central Board include the decisions on who hosts the 2013 FIBA U-19 World Championships. Additionally, updates will be given on the on-going preparations for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain and the FIBA World Championship for Women in Turkey.
The Board will also be fully informed of FIBA’s 3×3 activities. The inaugural season of the FIBA 3×3 World Tour is only months away and the summer will also see the first-ever FIBA 3×3 World Cup for Men and Women in Athens, Greece and 3×3 U-18 World Cup for Boys and Girls in Seville, Spain.
The system of competition for the period 2017-2030 will be another important topic. At its last meeting in December 2011, the Central Board gave the green light to look into ways to improving the system of competition. Since then, talks have taken place between FIBA and its stakeholders and the current state of affairs on the issue will be addressed in Rio. A final decision is expected towards the end of the year.