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The resumption of basketball competitions remains very uneven from one region of the world to another, because of the coronavirus crisis. Malian Hamane Niang, president of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), takes stock of the situation in his sport for rfi.fr. Interview.
RFI: Hamane Niang, at the end of May, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) published its guidelines for returning to the game. In early July, where are we? Have competitions resumed on all continents, despite the coronavirus?
Hamane Niang : First of all, I would like to thank all of our national federations for their support over the past few months, dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic. We reacted very quickly by suspending all FIBA competitions. We were one of the first international federations to do so, starting on March 12.
FIBA worked extensively during this period in developing guidelines for resumption of play. The number one priority for FIBA is the health of the players and all players. The different types of restart sent to the different federations for information are not intended to replace the directives and restrictions put in place by governments and public health authorities. Its lines were only intended to help national federations and leagues to end their seasons.
Today, I can tell you that some national leagues have ended their seasons, like Spain, Germany, Israel. There have also been 3×3 basketball competitions in Estonia, Belgium, Lithuania, France and elsewhere. On the other hand, the recovery is much more difficult for international competitions because the situations are very different from one country to another and there are many restrictions concerning travel.
No FIBA Senior World Cup, men or women, was scheduled in 2020 and 2021. Has this enabled FIBA to weather this crisis better than other international sports federations which have been obliged to postpone or even cancel major events?
I would like to recall that for 2020 FIBA had scheduled the Olympic Qualification Tournaments (OQT) for the Tokyo Games, which are very important for basketball fans. With the Covid-19, we have had to postpone these TQO 2020 to 2021.
As for 2021, this is a flagship year for our zonal competitions with the Afrobasket, the Eurobasket, the AsiaCup and the AmeriCup. So you can see that we are affected for these two years, like other international federations.
But FIBA revised its competition calendars in April 2020. We decided to hold the Afrobasket, AsiaCup and TQO for 2021 in Tokyo. On the other hand, the Eurobasket and the AmeriCup were postponed to 2022. We hope that these alterations will allow us to get through this crisis better.
The Men’s World Cup took place in China and in particular in Wuhan, where the Covid-19 pandemic started, a few weeks before the coronavirus crisis. Looking back, has FIBA escaped the worst? Namely, a last minute cancellation of the tournament and / or a wave of contagions among the teams?
Yes, indeed, we were lucky that the virus did not appear until after the World Cup in China. This allowed us to organize the most important World Cup; the first with 32 teams spread across 8 cities. […] A World Cup that saw all records broken, especially in terms of viewers, spectators, views on social networks. […]
We are already looking forward to the next World Cup in 2023, which will be organized for the first time by three countries: the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.
Has the coronavirus crisis had an impact on FIBA finances?
FIBA is in a healthy and stable financial situation. We have obviously reviewed the 2020 budget and are careful about our spending. But we are confident that we can overcome this crisis.
Leagues like the NBA (North America) or the CBA (China) have chosen to finish the season in one or two sites, behind closed doors. Does FIBA understand and support this strategy?
Each league is independent and each organization can make its decisions. That said, we understand and support the resumption of the game whenever the health of the players and all players is taken into account and the directives of the public health authorities are respected.
To ensure that the competitions will take place in 2021, should this type of solution be favored : ie tournaments without spectators, with matches taking place in a small number of rooms?
Our wish is that the competitions resume as in the past, in a sporty and festive atmosphere, with all the stakeholders. Then, depending on the evolution of the pandemic, we will have enough energy to adapt and continue playing for the happiness of our fans.
A competition whose fate has still not been decided is the Basketball Africa League (BAL). Do you fear the outright cancellation of its inaugural season?
[…] The leaders of the BAL are currently analyzing all possible avenues for the launch of the 2020 season. I remain convinced that everything will be done to ensure that this league, which has raised so much hope for the world of basketball in general and for that in Africa in particular, will see the light of day in the coming months.
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