Marathon FIBA meeting

GENEVA – It was practically a whole-day affair for the FIBA Central Board that got together for a marathon session at the FIBA head office, known as the House of Basketball, in Mies, a Swiss town near here, last Saturday and SBP chairman emeritus Manny V. Pangilinan sat through it all as an active participant.

FIBA president Horacio Muratore and FIBA secretary-general Patrick Baumann called the session to order at 10 in the morning. Among those who attended were NBA veterans Yao Ming of China and Vlade Divac of Serbia. The only other NBA veteran in the Central Board, Andrei Kirilenko of Russia, was absent as his home in Bel-Air, California, had been burned down by a wildfire just a few days before.

During a break in the session, Yao met up with Gilas head coach Chot Reyes who joined the Philippine delegation for the awarding of the hosting rights for the 2023 FIBA World Cup. Yao and Reyes exchanged notes on how their countries performed in the first qualifying window for the 2019 World Cup. China and the Philippines were two of only five Asia/Pacific countries that finished the window with a perfect 2-0 record. The others were Australia, Jordan and Kazakhstan. There are 16 countries involved in the Asia/Pacific qualifiers.

Reyes told Yao he looked in shape and might give Gilas’ naturalized player Andray Blatche a run for his money if they play one-on-one. Yao laughed and said keeping up with his 7-year-old daughter Yao Qinlei (Amy in English) is making him stay in condition. Amy was born in Houston to Yao’s wife, Ye Li, a former national player who saw action at the 2004 Olympics.

Japan Basketball Association president Yuko Mitsuya, a 1984 Olympic bronze medalist with the women’s volleyball team, flew in from Tokyo the morning of the meeting and left at night. She was in Switzerland only for nine hours. Mitsuya joined Pangilinan and Indonesia Basketball Association chairman Erick Thohir on the panel that presented the consortium’s bid to host the 2023 World Cup before the FIBA Central Board in the morning.

The consortium presented for 20 minutes then the other finalist, a two-nation bid by Argentina and Uruguay, took its turn. Argentina’s presentation included endorsements from NBA veterans Luis Scola, now playing in China, and Manu Ginobili. A question-and-answer portion followed each presentation. The consortium fielded questions about fulfilling the candidature requirements of financial obligations and Indonesia beefing up its national team to World Cup standards. The Central Board members involved in the bidding were later excused from the deliberations.

At about 12 noon, the Central Board took a break and Baumann called for a private meeting with Pangilinan and Argentina Basketball Association president Federico Susbielles. That was when Susbielles told Pangilinan that Argentina and Uruguay had withdrawn their bid, making the consortium the unanimous choice to host the 2023 World Cup. By 1 p.m., FIBA arranged for the formal awarding of the hosting rights with Muratore opening the envelope to reveal the consortium as the winning bidder. Delegates from the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia whooped it up when the announcement was made. Then came endless photo shoots and media interviews. 

FIBA served lunch at the office canteen for the Central Board members and delegates at 2 p.m. and after about 30 minutes, resumed the meeting to take up more matters. The afternoon agenda listed reports on the first qualifying window for the 2019 World Cup, FIBA’s investment of more than $35 Million to national associations all over the world, the new women’s calendar, 3x3’s inclusion as a medal event at the 2020 Olympics, the appointment of Sheikh Ali Al Thani of Qatar as new International Basketball Foundation president and the political disputes hampering the progress of the associations in Peru and Venezuela.

It was noted that in the first qualifying window for the 2019 World Cup, 72 national teams played 76 games with total attendance surpassing 300,000 spectators with over half of the arenas at 80 percent capacity and a digital reach of 312 million.

The meeting ended at 7 p.m. after which Pangilinan and the Philippine delegation celebrated over dinner hosted by Ambassador Evan Garcia, the country’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, and his staff at the La Taverne Restaurant. The Philippine delegation happily walked back to the hotel in freezing sub-zero temperature by 10 p.m. and nobody cared about the cold. History was made here as FIBA awarded the hosting rights to the World Cup to multiple countries for the first time ever with the game coming home to the Philippines.