FIBA Central Board welcomes 2 new federations

Patrick Baumann, FIBA Secretary General

Buenos Aires – FIBA held a Central Board meeting on Sunday and there were several things tackled on the agenda. One of the salient points of the meeting was the growth of the organization. FIBA officially welcomed two new national federations into the fold, from South Sudan and East Timor.

The Central Board delayed its tackling of the four wild card slots for the 2014 Basketball World Cup and deferred it for the next meeting.

The Central Board reviewed FIBA’s anti-doping policy and decided to introduce blood tests for Human Growth Hormones (hGH) in all of FIBA’s main competitions, starting with the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain and expanding to all continents as of 2015.

Another major topic discussed at the meeting was the plan to introduce a new system for FIBA’s U17 and U19 World Championships for Men and Women which will be implemented in 2014. The competitions will be played over the course of seven days instead of nine days in the old system.

Cyriel Coomans, acting FIBA Europe President, was approved as a Central Board member with full right, in replacement of the late FIBA Europe President Olafur Rafnsson. The Central Board also decided to make a contribution to the family of Olafur Rafnsson.