FIBA - Decisions on hosts for OQTs, schedule of competitions top Central Board agenda

MADRID (FIBA Central Board) - FIBA’s Central Board holds its second meeting of 2011 this weekend (10-11 December) in Madrid, Spain, with a number of key topics on the docket.
 
Topping the agenda will be the selection of the two countries to host next year’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (OQTs) for Men and Women.
 
Lithuania and Venezuela are the finalists bidding for the right to hold the men’s event, while Czech Republic and Turkey are the last two countries contending for the women’s.

A total of 24 teams - 12 men's and 12 women's - will compete in the two OQTs with a view to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.
 
The Central Board will also continue the discussions on the principles that are to help shape the calendar and format of competitions for the period 2017-2030. This comes following a first discussion – which was held at the previous Board meeting last spring – and after more than 30 of FIBA’s top national federation members attended a workshop in Mid-November in Geneva and expressed their views.

The topic at last month’s meeting was how to improve the calendar of competitions as well as implement simpler and clearer formats and systems that respect players, clubs, federations and all other stakeholders of the game. The findings of the workshop are to be put to the Central Board who will debate where to go from there.
 
Among the other issues to be addressed is FIBA’s new 3x3 Basketball programme, with a close look at its network of competitions and the related regulatory framework. The Central Board is expected to give the green light to the formal launch of this new discipline as of 2012 after its successful introduction at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010.

FIBA