10/03/2021
News
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Dedicated webinar for female officials in step with International Women's Day

MIES (Switzerland) - FIBA has celebrated International Women's Day by hosting a "Women in Officiating" webinar.

500 participants received a warm welcome from FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis who commenced the webinar. Participants then heard from various experts who shed light on projects regarding the mental, physical and technical aspects of female refereeing.

As one of FIBA's strategic priorities for the 2019-2023 cycle is "Women in Basketball", plans to bump up the number of women as professional referees across all competitions - both men and women - were discussed. The webinar also addressed the quality of the development of FIBA female referees, and the desire to increase the visibility of female referees.

In October 2020, FIBA announced the third cycle of FIBA Game Officials Licensing, which had a special emphasis on the promotion of female referees. With this new cycle, FIBA has assigned dedicated License allocations for female referees to each eligible National Federation, as part of its commitment to female referees being part of the Women in Basketball strategic priority.

A sign of commitment to raising the profile of women officials is that the newest version of the Official Basketball Rules has been published, with now the addition of referee hand signals as well as player figures being illustrated by both men and women.

"We are really focused on boosting the women's important role in officiating and this webinar is a great tip-off that will follow a series of webinars and other activities dedicated to ensuring the inclusion of all game officials," said Carl Jungebrand, FIBA Head of Refereeing.

FIBA Referee Operations has a detailed plan to develop women in officiating by delivering monthly webinars and other actions with various experts, with the goal of developing all female officials globally. The webinar can be watched again on the FIBA iRef app and will be available shortly.  

 FIBA