MUNICH May 11, 2020 (MOREL-Germany) - The 6th meeting of the FIBA Europe Board term of office 2019-2023 took place over video conference on Monday, May 11, 2020. The meeting was chaired by FIBA Europe President Turgay Demirel and was attended by FIBA President Hamane Niang, FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis and FIBA Europe Secretary General / FIBA Executive Director Europe Kamil Novak.The following key topics were discussed during the meeting:

The Board approved an important change for FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2021 which is set to be co-hosted by France and Spain in June next year.

The Spanish organizers took over the organization of the last part of the tournament and Valencia will now host the Final Phase of the event as well as two pools of the Group Phase. France will host two pools of the Group Phase in a city to be determined at a later stage.

With most National Federations having been impacted heavily by the recent pandemic, the Board approved a plan to push back parts of the bidding process timeline for the two upcoming flagship events.

For the FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2023, interested Federations can still submit formal expression of interest until the end of this month while the bidding process and a decision are extended by three months to March 2021.

For the FIBA EuroBasket 2025, Federations can still submit letters of interest until the end of this month while the bidding process is extended by almost a year and a decision on the hosts will be taken in March 2022.

The Board discussed the status of the 2019-20 season of EuroLeague Women, EuroCup Women and FIBA Europe Cup, including the possibility of organizing a season-ending tournament for each competition in late September or October. It was decided to re-examine the matter in the Board's next meeting in June.

The three competitions were suspended already in March and FIBA Europe has been monitoring the situation and making relevant assessments ever since.

Regarding the upcoming 2020-21 club competitions season, as there is still uncertainty in terms of the evolution of health and safety measures and travel conditions and also taking into account the views of the clubs and the conditions in their countries,  FIBA Europe is currently working on different options with regard to both calendar and competition system adjustments for a decision to be taken at the next Board in June.

In April, FIBA Europe asked the National Federations to fill out a comprehensive questionnaire, to help put together a picture of the post-COVID-19 landscape in European basketball.

The responses were then discussed further in online meetings of the FIBA Europe President, Vice Presidents and FIBA Executive Director with all National Federations. The meetings revealed the hardship that the pandemic has inflicted on basketball entities across the continent.

The detailed findings of both the questionnaire and the meetings were discussed at the Board and the information will now be assessed carefully as part of the Post-COVID-19 Roadmap.

This communication with the Federations will be ongoing. Further meetings are to be scheduled in the month of June to assess developments in each Federation.

Recently FIBA Europe has introduced its National Federations Exchange Platform in order to have a clear overview of recent developments in all countries and member federations; the platform allows and encourages the members to exchange project ideas such as in Youth Development Fund; Her World Her Rules; educational and training activities etc.

The FIBA Europe's Post-COVID-19 Roadmap will be finalized in the next few weeks and then presented to the Board in June for approval.

The originally scheduled workshop to inaugurate the TIME-OUT 2.0 project in Prague in June has been pushed back to a later date, yet to be confirmed. The project will instead launch with a webinar and video conference in the same period, June 22-26.

Following a request by the Irish organizers for an adjustment in the event dates, the Board approved the FIBA Small Countries European Championship 2021 to take place June 28 to July 3 2021.

The decision about the women's event will be taken at a later date.(ends)