MIES - As part of the improvements made to its governance and in line with its constantly ongoing efforts to involve all of basketball's stakeholders in the decision-making process, FIBA in 2014 announced the creation of the first-ever Players' Commission that would represent the interests of the sport's main actors.

The 13-member panel, headed by Chairman Vlade Divac and consisting of former and current players, met for the first time on Thursday-Friday 22-23 October at the House of Basketball, where it held wide-ranging discussions about issues affecting all players: potential rule changes, insurance of players while on national team duty, the Basketball Arbitrary Tribunal (BAT) as well as FIBA's new competition system that comes into effect in 2017 to mention a few.

FIBA's Players' Commission

Mr Divac, the Chairman of the Players' Commission, said: "It's a great thing that the players can get involved with FIBA and have a voice in the future. I think it's very important that they should be a part of this. I was very glad that I had the opportunity to bring these players together.

"One of the biggest points is that FIBA is going to implement the insurance for players when they play for their national teams. That's a very important aspect of the security of the players and that's something we didn't have regularly before. Now every player is going to be secure when playing for the national team.

"The members of the Commission are going to spread out and talk to the players, get all their ideas which we can discuss and then present to the Central Board who will make decisions. It's a great opportunity to move forward with ideas that players have."

The duties of FIBA's Players' Commission are:

• To study issues relating to players, men and women, of all age groups
• To propose to the Central Board any measures deemed necessary to improve the conditions of players and protect their ability to grow as players and as role models for others
• To make recommendations on practices or activities likely to be affecting the interests of players
• To provide feedback and advice on possible improvements to the various Competitions of FIBA

FIBA's Players' Commission for 2014-2019 consists of:
Chairman:
Divac, Vlade - Serbia

Members:
Alapag, Jim - Philippines
Dos Santos, Adriana Aparecida - Brazil
Egnell, Elisabeth - Sweden
Korstin, Ilona - Russia
Mottola, Hanno - Finland
Ndong, Boniface - Senegal
Nesterovic, Radoslav - Slovenia
Oberto, Fabricio - Argentina
Oyedeji, Olumide - Nigeria
Screen, Jennifer - Australia
Smith, Katie - USA
Valdemoro Madariaga, Amaya - Spain
Van Den Spiegel, Tomas - Belgium

FIBA