BEIRUT (Lebanon) – Workshops for Technical Delegates and Game Directors took place in Beirut, Lebanon this week  with participants from across Asia and Oceania. This event was held to build up from the success of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Qualifiers in order to prepare the Technical Delegates and Game Directors for the upcoming FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Qualifiers that will be tipping off in February 2020.

“The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Qualifiers showed how important your role was in making sure that the games are delivered according to the standards set,” FIBA Executive Director – Asia, Hagop Khajirian, addressed to the participants.

“The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Qualifiers was a success and for this I want to thank the Technical Delegates who played a key role in making it happen.”

The Technical Delegates workshop was held on the first three days of the entire event from 7-9 July.

“It was an excellent workshop and now we know about our next steps,” said Saadoun Al Kawari, the FIBA Technical Delegate from Qatar. “The first step was the World Cup Qualifiers and after we worked in the last 6 windows, we are now looking forward to do better following this workshop.”

“The workshop will benefit us in the upcoming events and competitions. I’m looking forward to the experience of the Asia Cup Qualifers and we hope to do the best for basketball as FIBA expects from us,” said Kahakhstan’s FIBA Techinical Delegate, Samson Arakelyan from Kazakhstan.

The Technical Delegates workshop was followed by a workshop for the Game Directors which was held from 10-11 July. The Game Directors workshop was attended by representatives from Indonesia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

With the success of these workshops, the teams involved will be prepared for the first-ever Qualifiers for the FIBA Asia Cup. The Qualifiers will be tipping off in February 2020. The timing of this schedule will further reduce the workload of players, optimize the logistics and costs for National Federations, and allow more space for the national leagues in an exceptionally condensed season before the Olympic Games.

FIBA