MIES (Switzerland) - FIBA hosted Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin at the House of Basketball today in Mies, Switzerland, a strategic meeting as part of the Road to FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019.

FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis met with Wang Jianlin and other representatives of Wanda, a global FIBA partner, to discuss various aspects of the partnership.

An obvious topic was the first-ever 32-team FIBA Basketball World Cup (August 31 to September 15), which will have games in eight cities and will be staged for the first time in China, one of the most important event on the world's sporting calendar in 2019.

Wanda Group will be an integral part of the event with the Wanda Little Champions, a program that will recruit 2,200 children to walk with the players during the athletes' introductions at all 92 games of the World Cup.

With a huge emphasis on the legacy of the World Cup, Wanda and FIBA have the joint objective of both inspiring young people in the country and fueling their interest in basketball in future years.

The Wanda delegation enjoyed its visit to the House of Basketball.

"We highly value our existing partnership with FIBA and are excited to be a part of the first-ever FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China," said Wang Jianlin.

"We look forward to jointly growing the sport of basketball in China, and globally, for many generations to come and are committed to doing this hand in hand with FIBA."

Andreas Zagklis added: "We're honored by the visit of the Chairman, his second time to the House of Basketball, which shows the commitment and the level of cooperation between the two organizations,"

"Both the FIBA President Horacio Muratore and I are looking forward to continuing the partnership with Wanda Group, an instrumental partner for FIBA to develop our game worldwide and particularly in China."

FIBA established, nearly three years ago, a long-term business partnership with Wanda. For the period of four FIBA Basketball World Cup cycles up to 2033, Wanda is FIBA's worldwide exclusive partner for the sale and marketing of the worldwide sponsorship and licensing rights with respect to the FIBA Basketball World Cups and their Qualifiers, the Men's and Women's Continental Cups and their Qualifiers, as well as the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cups and Youth World Championships.

FIBA