SAN JUAN - On Wednesday the 18th and Thursday the 19th of November, the Conrad Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico received the visit of over 30 specialists in various basketball areas, alongside national federations representatives of the Americas as part of the first “Experts Seminar” of FIBA’s National Federation Support Program.

The seminar was aimed at training specialists in different areas of expertise within basketball from throughout the continent. It was attended by coaches, referees instructors, sports managers, sports medicine specialists and marketing directors, selected for their career and contributions to the sport with the goal of supporting and consulting national federations of the Americas at their request.

Also present were executives of the national federations of Bahamas, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, British Virgin Islands, Paraguay, Panama and Virgin Islands looking to receive this support in preparation for the new competition system set to begin in 2017 to qualify for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

The International Basketball Federation through its various departments gave presentations in areas such as Structuring a National Federation, Technology (IT) in competitions and recruitment of players, Eligibility, 3x3, National School of Coaches, Referees Training, Communications and Marketing. The new competition system was also presented in detail to all participants.

"These have been two very satisfactory days that have served to advance the cause of further uniting the family of basketball in our continent. Our national federations are about to face this great challenge of the new competition system, which has been designed with the priority of strengthening their institutions. This seminar is part of that process.", said FIBA Americas President, Mr. Usie Richards.

"In our continent we have big talent pool in all areas concerning the development and strengthening of basketball and it is in our interest to make them available to all national federations that will be greatly helped by the knowledge, skillset and experience of each one of these individuals. We want our national federations to know that we are invested in having them be ready to receive all the benefits that this new competition system will bring to basketball in their countries.", added Richards.

The specialists present at the seminar were coaches Joaquin Brizuela, Gustavo Cañas, Alberto Espasandín, Omar Gonzalez, Flor Melendez, Edwin Peña, Facundo Petracci, Enrique Tolcachier, Carlos Romano and Guillermo Vecchio; referees instructor Eduardo Bellon; sports managers Oswaldo Narvaez and Alejandro Cassettai; sports medicine specialist Arnaldo Rodriguez; and marketing managers Alvaro Butureira, Matias Cardelle and Diogenes Urquiza.

The National Federations were represented by:
Maurice Smith - Bahamas Basketball Federation
Rodrigo Silva - Chile Basketball Federation
Jorge Armando Garcia - President of the Colombian Federation of Basketball
Jose Ramirez - Cuban Basketball Federation
Richards Theron - President of the Basketball Federation of Virgin Islands Guy Malone - President of the Basketball Federation of Virgin Islands
Jair Peralta - President of the Panamanian Basketball Federation
Yamili Seif - Paraguayan Basketball Federation
Joseph E. Borrono and Nelson Saldivar - Dominican Basketball Federation

The International Basketball Federation was represented by Americas President, Mr. Usie Richards, Americas Executive Director, Mr. Alberto Garcia, Senior associate of the National Federation Support Program, Mr. Florian Pasquet and Americas Secretary General Emeritus, Mr. Jenaro "Tuto" Marchand.


FIBA