FIBA Mid-Term Congress approves additional gender guidelines in line with Women in Basketball strategy

MIES (Switzerland) - The FIBA Mid-Term Congress took place virtually today, a first for FIBA, from the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball and brought together delegates from 161 National Federations.

Online for the Mid-Term Congress were FIBA’s Central Board members, FIBA's Executive Directors from the five Regional Offices, and the Chairs of the FIBA Commissions.

Delegates heard reports on FIBA's activities since August 2019, when the XXI FIBA Congress took place in Beijing, China. FIBA President Hamane Niang and FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis both addressed the Congress as well as FIBA Treasurer Ingo Weiss and FIBA Foundation Director Florian Wanninger. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach also shared a message with the Congress, along with International Olympic Committee Sports Director Kit McConnell and the FIBA Foundation President Horacio Muratore.

FIBA President Hamane Niang

During FIBA President Hamane Niang's address to the Congress, he said: "Since March 2020, FIBA has made significant efforts to support the basketball community as best it can, despite an unfavorable environment for playing our sport. In addition to all these efforts, we wanted to continue our action on behalf of you, our members.

"Over the next two years, we will continue our work, based on the strategic objectives that we defined together at the last Congress, grounding ourselves in the principles of unity and solidarity that have helped us so much during this pandemic."

The Mid-Term Congress voted to adopt a new version of the FIBA General Statutes with key amendments aiming to further gender guidelines in line with FIBA's Women in Basketball strategy, clarify the possibility to hold official meetings by videoconferences, and confirm that electronic forms of basketball, in particular esports, falls within FIBA's scope. Other revisions to the General Statutes were also approved during the Congress.

The Congress also voted to approve the proposal of the Central Board to expel the Peru Basketball Federation (FDPB) according to Article 10.6 of the FIBA General Statutes.

Andreas Zagklis, FIBA Secretary General, gave a comprehensive report on FIBA's activities and how FIBA has responded to the pandemic, along with FIBA's Strategic Objectives for 2019-2027, focusing on current activities relating to the three strategic priorities for 2019-2023: Empower National Federations, Women in Basketball and Enlarge the FIBA Family. Zagklis concluded with a look to the future at both FIBA's upcoming lineup of summer events and also the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022 in Australia. 

FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis

The FIBA Secretary General said: "We [also] learned that there are advantages coming out of difficult situations and that FIBA and the National Federations have displayed a tremendous operational and execution capacity."

Zagklis concluded his report by saying: "We should feel empowered by the achievements and the strength of the basketball family, and look forward to our activities that will take our strategic goals even further."

This was the second Mid-Term Congress of FIBA. The first was held in Hong Kong in 2017. The FIBA Mid-Term Activity Report 2019-2021, a supporting document of the FIBA Mid-Term Congress, is available here.

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About FIBA
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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