Thirteen French-speaking African countries take part in a basketball revitalization workshop

ABIDJAN - FIBA Africa last month held a two-day workshop about the revitalization of the national basketball federations.

From October 30-31 national federation presidents and technical directors from thirteen French-speaking African countries took part in the event in Ivorian city of Abidjan.

Speakers Nour Amri - who serves as National Technical Director and FIBA coaching Instructor - and Florian Pasquet - FIBA National Federations and Sports Manager - talked about several issues affecting national basketball federations.

The two officials instructed the participants to focus and implement key measures namely:
- Role and responsibilities of the National Technical Director;
- Organization of the Technical Department: Structure of the technical department (including Training Structure for Coaches / Referees / Managers)
- Human Resources Management
- Financial Responsibility and Logistics.

The 3x3 basketball was the main talking point of the second day of the workshop. Nicolas Widmer, FIBA 3x3 Development Senior Associate, lectured on the 3x3 development process.

He recalled that in order to achieve established goals, the National Federations should:
- Appoint a 3x3 coordinator within the federation;
- Make sure that all organized events are well registered on play3x3.com;
- Centralize resources on a place (city, neighborhood etc ...)
- Identify the regions with high potential (great number of players, good contact with local authorities, active private promoter, etc ...)
- Offer an opportunity to play regularly
- Once the activity has been developed sustainably in one place, replicate the model to other regions.

To confirm the effectiveness of the process, Jean Michel Ramarosson, FIBA Africa National Federation Commission chairman made a presentation on the example of Madagascar who have become one of the highest ranked countries in 3x3 basketball in Africa.

Participating countries of the so-called ‘’Family Group’’ (countries of low potential of development), included Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Gabon, the Republic of Guinea, Madagascar, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Togo.

FIBA