The International Center for Sports Studies (CIES) and FIBA have released the ninth edition of the International Basketball Migration Report, a seasonal snapshot of migration trends across the world.
This edition of the report, which covers the 2019-2020 season, combines FIBA’s knowledge and data on international transfers with the CIES Sports Observatory’s recognized expertise in analysis to document international player migration for this season.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the basketball world to suspend its activities for months from March 2020. Uncertainty over how to handle the pandemic has caused most of the national leagues to cancel the remainder of the season 2019-20 and to declare a champion or not to award the title. Only a few national leagues have been able to revive and crown a winner of the 2019-20 season. Internationally, only the Basketball Champions League and the Basketball Champions League Americas have taken over and crowned a champion.
With a total of 8,900 transfers recorded for the season involving 7,371 players, this edition really highlights how basketball is a global sport, encapsulated by 213 national federations and millions of registered players around the world.
Here are some of the main highlights of the results of this annual study:
A record number of international transfers
A total of 8,900 international transfers were registered with FIBA in the last season – an increase of 2.4% from the 2018-19 season. Some 7,371 players have been involved in at least one international transfer, all regions of FIBA except the Americas have seen an increase in the number of international transfers.
Fewer matches played and a high number of foreign players
There was a significant decrease in the number of games played in 2019-20 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping to 203 from 260 in 2018-19. China, Germany, Israel and Spain were the only countries with domestic leagues covered by the report to end their respective 2019-20 campaigns with a regular season and playoffs, while Australia played three games. of his NBL final without going to an end. Out of 16 leagues, the percentage of foreigners was 45.6%, with six leagues including the Jeep Elite having more foreign players than domestic players. And playing time for international players was consistently high in the leagues, with the average minutes per game for foreigners in all leagues being 22.1 minutes.
The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the NBA, NBA G League and WNBA
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NBA has resumed its season in an isolated “bubble” environment with 22 teams playing from July to October 2020. There have only been 34 inbound transfers recorded by the NBA, the number the lowest since the 2006-07 season and down drastically from 137 the previous season. One of the main reasons for this was the cancellation of the NBA Summer League 2020. The WNBA and NBA G League have also seen a decrease in inbound and outbound transfers.
Limited development opportunities within leagues for domestic U21 players
The 2019-2020 season has hardly changed in terms of the percentage of U21 domestic players and their respective playing time; the percentage in all leagues being 14.9% and the average minutes played per game being 5.2 minutes.
The characteristics of the Jeep Elite
Regarding France, we note in particular that it was not involved in a single conflict at the Basketball Arbitral Tribunal de Lausane (BAT), that only Argentina and China have more teams (20) than the Jeep Elite (18), that the number of points scored (81.8) is higher than Spain and Italy, that the average height (1.96.6m) is lower than that of the “big” leagues , that the percentage of foreigners (56.5%) is high but far from that of La Liga Endesa (70.7%) with 37 nationalities represented, that the number of minutes (3.3) offered to French U21s is VERY low, and even that the turnover from one season to another compared to other leagues, is high – we suspected.
Click here to download the full report.
Photo: Axel Julien (Dijon, FIBA)
