MIES - Sheikh Saud Ali Al-Thani from Qatar has been appointed new President of FIBA's Foundation, the International Basketball Foundation (IBF).

The IBF Board met on Saturday to approve the appointment. Manfred Ströher, treasurer of the Foundation has been appointed IBF Vice-President, and Asterios Zois new member from Europe.

Sheikh Al-Thani succeeds Yvan Mainini, who presided IBF from 2014 until now and had to retire for health reasons. He had been FIBA President from 2010 – 2014 and then was elected FIBA Honorary President and appointed IBF President.

"We welcome Sheikh Saud Ali Al-Thani as new President of the IBF and wish him good luck in his new position. But this is also the moment to thank Yvan Mainini for his outstanding contributions to FIBA and the Foundation," said FIBA President Horacio Muratore.

Yvan Mainini

FIBA Secretary General and IOC member Patrick Baumann also complimented the work of the outgoing President: "During his two-year tenure he initiated multiple sport for development projects and created a good basis for the continuous growth of these projects."

Sheikh Al-Thani has big ambitions in his new role: "I will do everything to continue the excellent work of my predecessor. We have a lot of opportunities to assist our membership with "Basketball For Good" projects, especially in deprived areas around the world. We can give hope and aspiration to youngsters with the help of our beautiful sport."

About Basketball for Good
The International Basketball Foundation (IBF) was founded in 2008 by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). The IBF's mission is to address the role of sports, in particular basketball, in the fields of community building, education, women empowerment, health and well-being, as well as conflict resolution.

With its Basketball For Good projects, the IBF promotes the values and cultural heritage of basketball as a vector for change and develops inclusive programmes to tackle pressing issues that affect children and youth in the concerned communities.

The programmes are initiated by the IBF and implemented in partnership with FIBA's member federations, local NGOs and partners with the aim of supporting collaboration between local actors and to drive economic growth in the relevant regions.

The IBF is currently impacting the lives of thousands of youngsters in Aruba, Saint Martin, Sint Marteen, Antigua and Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Guyana, French Guiana, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mauritius, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Djibouti, Comoros, Madagascar and Seychelles.

FIBA