FIBA Asia elects its new board for 2023-2027 term

BEIRUT (Lebanon) - The Zone Assembly of FIBA in Asia  was held on Monday, 22 May, 2023 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where the board members for the 2023-2027 cycle were elected. 

Dr. K Govindraj (President), Mr. Yao Ming (Chairman), Mr. Akram Halabi, (1st Vice President) , Mr. Alfredo Panlilio (2^nd Vice President), Mr. Abdullatif Al Fardan Al Uaimi (Chairman Finance), and Ms. Xu Lan (Member of Gender in Minority), join the FIBA Executive Director - Asia, Mr. Hagop Khajirian and the 6 Sub-Zone representatives, Ms. Yuko Mitsuya (EABA), Mr. Kho Poo Thai (SEABA), Mr. Tarif Koutrach (WABA), Mr. Abay Alpamyssov (CABA), Mr. Abhijit Sarker (SABA) and Dr. Ghassan Tashkandi (Gulf), to the board.

Group Photo: Click here to download the high-resolution photo

Board Members Photo: Click here to download the high-resolution photo

Outgoing FIBA Asia President Sheikh Saud Ali Al Thani chaired the session, with FIBA President Hamane Niang, FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis, FIBA Executive Director Asia Mr. Hagop Khajirian, and members of the FIBA Asia Board also in attendance.

In his last speech as President, Sheikh Saud looked back at his time as President of FIBA Asia, and extended his gratitude to the Zone’s National Member Federations. 

“I want to thank you all, our dear National Member Federations, for the support and trust that you have given me during my tenure as FIBA Asia President,” said Sheikh Saud Ali Al Thani. 

“We play this year our biggest event, the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 3 Asian countries. The Philippines, Japan and Indonesia and this will the first time in three countries combining together almost 500 million people. It will be an unprecedented event in terms of quality for the players and the fans.  I want to thank these countries for taking the flag from China, and they will pass it on the 10^th of September to another Asian country, Qatar,” said FIBA Secretary General Mr. Andreas Zagklis.

FIBA Executive Director, Mr. Hagop Khajirian, paid tribute to the outgoing president and recalled their time together.  “This is a farewell meeting to a man who has all my respect. He has served Asian basketball for more that 30 years, 25 of these years I was with him.

Mr. Khajirian also thanked the National Member Federations for showing strong solidarity and support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our basketball fraternity stood strong and displayed great fortitude during the pandemic, and I’m personally duty bound to express my gratitude to all our National Member Federations and their boards,” said FIBA Executive Director, Mr. Hagop Khajirian. Despite the pandemic, Asia went on its business and conducted an impressive number of workshops and seminars, attracting record number of participants, and all this was due to the very active and enthusiastic participation and initiatives of our National Member Federations,” he added.

Khajirian recalled the impressive performances of Japan and China at the Tokyo Olympics and the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 and asked the attendees to give a round of applause to both National Teams for proudly flying Asia’s flag high at the world stage.

The Regional Office's mission to elevate the club competitions and strengthen its ecosystem was highlighted by Khajirian with the West Asia Super League (WASL) and future similar projects.

“We have already had great success in launching the West Asia Super League, a FIBA owned pan-regional club competition involving four Sub-Zones in Asia. With WASL we now have a solid foundation that we can build on to create similar projects in the region that would elevate the club competitions in Asia," he added.

The Regional Office report was also presented to the delegates and highlighted the key achievements in relation to the Strategic Objectives 2019-2023: Empowering National Federations, Women in Basketball, and Enlarge FIBA Family.

FIBA