SBP to begin World Cup buildup

MANILA, Philippines — SBP chairman emeritus Manny V. Pangilinan recently discussed preparations for the joint hosting of the 2023 FIBA World Cup with FIBA secretary-general Patrick Baumann and FIBA treasurer Ingo Weiss in two closed-door meetings in Jakarta as the goal is to set up the working organization for the event by year-end.

Pangilinan, Baumann and Weiss arranged the meetings during the Asian Games. Baumann is also an IOC member while Weiss is the German Basketball Federation president and German Sports Youth chairman.

The first meeting took over an hour in the morning among Pangilinan, Baumann and Weiss at the Hotel Indonesia Kempinski while the second meeting went for about 30 minutes in the afternoon, this time including SEABA and Indonesian Olympic Committee president Eric Thohir, at the Fairmont Jakarta Hotel. Both Pangilinan and Thohir are FIBA Central Board members with Baumann and Weiss. The Philippines, Indonesia and Japan formed a consortium that won the bid to host the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

SBP president Al Panlilio said both meetings were productive. “The meetings revolved around the organization of the 2023 FIBA World Cup and the need to start preparations,” he said. “In the first meeting, MVP voiced out his unhappiness about some details of the decision (to sanction the Philippines in the aftermath of the Australia brawl in the third window of the FIBA Asia/Pacific World Cup Qualifiers at the Philippine Arena last July 2) and sent a strong message. MVP decided just to make the deadline (of making an appeal) lapse. We agreed on this strategy. It’s time to move on and focus on the Asian Games and the upcoming FIBA Qualifiers.”

The deadline to submit an appeal to FIBA was last Aug. 14. SBP executive director Sonny Barrios said the initial plan was to send an appeal not to bargain down the sanctions but to clarify three issues which formed the basis of the penalties. “We had no intention to appeal for a lowering of the penalties,” he said. “What we wanted to do was for FIBA to hear our side on those three points which was achieved in MVP’s meeting, making an appeal unnecessary.” MVP’s decision not to go through the appeal process and instead explain the issues personally to Baumann in a private meeting was the more judicious option.

“We never made an appeal so there was nothing to withdraw,” said Panlilio. “The deadline just lapsed without us making an appeal. But MVP pointed out in the first meeting that firstly, R. R. (Pogoy) was not the instigator as he was cited to be in the FIBA report. Secondly, bringing up an issue involving Calvin (Abueva) in a previous competition to add to his sanction didn’t seem relevant. And thirdly, we didn’t lose control of the crowd during the free-for-all. Only one spectator of 22,000 got involved and that was because the players spilled over to the audience behind the basket. We wanted to make those issues clear to FIBA.”

Panlilio said Thohir’s participation in the second meeting was critical since Indonesia will be a co-host in 2023. Thohir is chairman of the Indonesia Asian Games Organizing Committee. “We talked about the need for external help and as lead host, we’re thinking of tapping Deloitte’s services,” said Panlilio. “The World Cup is a massive event and we’re going all out to make this the most successful World Cup ever.”  Deloitte is a London-based multinational company that specializes in financial advisory, enterprise risk, audit, tax and consulting. It is the world’s largest professional services company in terms of manpower with over 260,000 professionals and aggregate revenues with $38.8 Billion last year.

Panlilio said there was no discussion on Indonesia’s progress as a national team, considering it will automatically qualify for the group stage. “When we were awarded the co-hosting rights, FIBA told us the progress of the Indonesian team would be monitored closely,” he said. “I’m sure Mr. Thohir is aware of the challenge.”