FIBA Europe Board autumn meeting concludes in Vilnius

VILNIUS – The Board of FIBA Europe convened in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius on Monday, November 19 to discuss a wide array of topics concerning European basketball.

The meeting was chaired by FIBA Europe President Turgay Demirel with FIBA Vice President Hamane Niang and FIBA Chief Operating Officer Markus Studer being among the invited guests. Before the start of the proceedings the participants honored the memory of former FIBA Secretary General and International Olympic Committee member Patrick Baumann with a minute of silence.

The Board was briefed about the new worldwide women's calendar and competition system. In Europe, the system will be applied as follows: the national teams will play FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2021 Qualifiers in November 2019, November 2020 and February 2021. The top six teams from the FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2019 will then play at the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments in February 2020. The bidding documents will be sent out in January 2019 by FlBA.

Additionally, there is a modification of the global window for women's events.

The window would now start on Sunday instead of Monday and would now be nine days long with game days on Thursday and Sunday.

The Board also approved a proposal to cancel classification games in major competitions, such as the game for 5th or 7th place, when there is no concrete reason for those games to take place.

Also discussed in length were recent developments with regards to the implementation of the ONE FIBA project and the bidding process for FIBA EuroBasket 2021.

The Board, finally, approved 10 candidacies as hosts of 2019 FIBA European Youth Championships. Three other tournaments have been awarded before through the early designation system, whereas three tournaments remain open for candidacies and are expected to be confirmed in the next few weeks.

The 2019 FIBA European Youth Championship organizers are:

Men's events:

Event	Dates	Venue	Country
FIBA U20 European Championship	July 13-21	Tel Aviv	ISR
FIBA U20 European Championship, Division B	July 12-21	Matosinhos	POR
FIBA U18 European Championship	July 27 - August 4	Volos	GRE
FIBA U18 European Championship, Division B	July 26 - August 4	Oradea	ROU
FIBA U18 European Championship, Division C	July 28 - August 4	Andorra la Vella	AND
FIBA U16 European Championship	August 9-17	Udine	ITA
FIBA U16 European Championship, Division B	August 8-17	Podgorica	MNE
FIBA U16 European Championship, Division C	July 14-21	TBC	ALB

 
Women's events:

Event	Dates	Venue	Country
FIBA U20 Women's European Championship	August 3-11	Klatovy	CZE
FIBA U20 Women's European Championship, Division B	August 3-11	TBD	TBD
FIBA U18 Women's European Championship	July 6-14	TBD	TBD
FIBA U18 Women's European Championship, Division B	July 5-14	Skopje	MKD
FIBA U18 Women's European Championship, Division C	July 30 - August 4	Andorra la Vella	AND
FIBA U16 Women's European Championship	August 16-24	TBD	TBD
FIBA U16 Women's European Championship, Division B	August 15-24	Sofia	BUL
FIBA U16 Women's European Championship, Division C	July 16-21	Chisinau	MDA

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FIBA (fiba.basketball) - the world governing body for basketball - is an independent association formed by 213 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. It is recognized as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

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