FIBA's Executive Committee holds second meeting of 2015

MIES - FIBA’s Executive Committee met on Thursday-Friday 18-19 June and took a number of important decisions on key topics including: the status of the Japanese Basketball Association (JBA); the new system of competition; the remodelling of European club competitions; automatic places for the national teams of the host country at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

On the matter of FIBA’s new system of competition, which comes into effect in 2017, the Executive Committee was presented with a finalised report that summed up the conclusions of the Competitions Commission and other stakeholders meetings. The nine-person panel gave the green light for it to be presented to FIBA’s Central Board to approve it at its next meeting, on 7-9 August, in Tokyo, Japan.

Following the recent meeting between Leagues and National Federations, the Executive Committee decided to create permanent channels of consultation by establishing a Working Group on League matters, which will also include ULEB members. As well as that, it decided to strengthen the regulatory provisions regarding insurance of players when on national team duty for the benefit of the clubs.

With regards to European club competitions, FIBA has held consultations over the last few months to explore how best to improve the current system. A new model was submitted to the Executive Committee and is to be presented at the next FIBA Europe Board Meeting - Extraordinary Session on Sunday 28 June. It will subsequently be shared with all concerned stakeholders.

Looking to the 2016 Rio Olympics, according to FIBA’s internal regulations, the Central Board may decide to grant automatic qualification to the national teams (men's and women's) of the country hosting the Olympic Games.

FIBA has received the application of the Brazilian Basketball Confederation (CBB) regarding the Olympic Basketball Tournaments in Rio. The Executive Committee noted that the CBB has a rich sporting history in basketball, but that the federation has significant outstanding dues with FIBA. A deadline of 31 July has been set for CBB to settle these in order to be granted automatic places for Rio 2016. The Executive Committee expressed its hopes that the hosting teams will compete at the next Olympics.

Following the latest media frenzy in the world of sport and international federations, FIBA's Executive Committee discussed the lessons to be learnt and gave a mandate to a working group to revise the internal control systems and come forward with proposals for potential improvements.

Finally, the Executive Committee accepted the request of the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) to establish its headquarters in the House of Basketball, with FIBA providing support.

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