MIES (Switzerland) - FIBA's Central Board convened by video conference today. The final meeting for the year had a full agenda following a busy calendar of events during 2021. 

The following key topics were discussed during the meeting:

FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022 Qualifying Tournaments Host Cities Announced

FIBA's Central Board confirmed Belgrade (Serbia), Osaka (Japan) and Washington, D.C. (USA) as host cities for the four FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022 Qualifying Tournaments. Belgrade will host two qualifying tournaments, while Osaka and Washington, D.C. will each stage one event. The qualifying tournaments will take place from February 10 to 13, 2022.

Bidding process for FIBA Basketball World Cups in 2026 and 2027

The Central Board approved the parallel bidding process for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2026 and the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027. Following the upcoming distribution of bidding documents, National Federations will be invited in due course to submit their Expression of Interest for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 by February 2022 and for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2026 by June 2022. 

FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers

Status reports were presented on the preparations for the upcoming FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers, which will tip-off next week across the regions on November 25. The opening window of the qualifiers promises to deliver plenty of excitement as this early stage of the journey to the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan begins. There will be six windows in total for the World Cup qualifiers, spanning from November 2021 to February 2023. 

Successful summer events

The Central Board received detailed reports on the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments played in June and July in Canada, Croatia, Lithuania and Serbia, and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Basketball tournaments.

Reports were also received on the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup which took place in Latvia in July, and the FIBA U19 Women's Basketball World Cup, held in Hungary in August.

FIBA Continental Cups 2021 a success

The FIBA Women's Continental Cups for 2021 were successfully executed across the regions. Detailed reports were received on all four women's events, the FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2021, FIBA Women's AmeriCup 2021, FIBA Women's AfroBasket 2021 and FIBA Women's Asia Cup 2021, along with the FIBA AfroBasket 2021, which was played in Rwanda. The remaining men's Continental Cups, the FIBA EuroBasket 2022, FIBA AmeriCup 2022 and FIBA Asia Cup 2022, are scheduled to be played next year. 

Club Competitions

Updates were presented to the Central Board on the Basketball Champions League sixth season, which tipped off in October. A status update was given on the Basketball Champions League Americas, with the Draw for the upcoming season recently held in Miami, USA. The third BCL Americas season is due to start in December. The Board also received a report on the Basketball Africa League (BAL) and the current qualifiers being played on the road to the BAL 2022 season. 

3x3

The Central Board received a detailed report on the 3x3 Olympic debut, which was a huge success, with many media outlets covering all the action and fan interaction on social media being extremely positive. Furthermore, a report was also given on the successful event-filled 2021 season of 3x3, which will conclude with the World Tour Final in Jeddah on December 17 and 18.

Strategic Objectives and Basketball For Good

Status reports on the three strategic priorities of Empower National Federations, Women in Basketball and Enlarge FIBA Family were presented to the Central Board. The numerous successes that have been achieved throughout the year were presented to the Board along with an in-depth update from the FIBA Foundation on its various Basketball For Good activities. 

 Other matters

A new global safeguarding initiative aimed at educating and protecting players from abuse in basketball was discussed during the meeting. The program will be developed in conjunction with the Players Commission and its partners and will be launched in 2022. 

In addition, the Board approved the budget for 2022 and the plan for 2023-2024.

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About FIBA
FIBA (fiba.basketball) - the world governing body for basketball - is an independent association formed by 212 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. It is recognized as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

For further information about FIBA, visit fiba.basketball or follow FIBA on facebook.com/fiba, twitter.com/fiba, instagram.com/fiba and youtube.com/fiba.