The Board of FIBA Europe at a meeting in Munich decided to give Ukraine chance to host the EuroBasket 2017 European Basketball Championship instead of the relocated EuroBasket 2015, FIBA Europe said in a statement on Friday.
The board took note of the efforts made by the Ukrainian Federation,
including the 6th place at EuroBasket 2013 and their participation in
the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup, FIBA Europe said.
“In that regard the Board declared its willingness to help the
Ukraine Federation in its efforts to promote basketball and decided to
authorize the President of FIBA Europe Turgay Demirel and the Secretary
General Kamil Novak to start negotiations immediately with the Ukrainian
side on the possibility of the country hosting EuroBasket 2017,
provided that some necessary conditions are met,” the federation said in
its statement.
Meanwhile, the press service of the Ukrainian Basketball Federation
(FBU) said that within the next two weeks Demirel and Novak would come
to Ukraine to sign an agreement about the holding of EuroBasket 2017.
With regard to EuroBasket 2015, a new bidding process will now be
opened to all European Federations, inviting single or multi-country
bids. All interested parties will have to present the required official
documentation and guarantees by July 31, 2014. A decision on the new
EuroBasket 2015 hosts is expected by Sep. 30, 2014 at the latest.
“The Board has also decided that next year’s event will be played
with the new system of competition which was originally set to come into
force in 2017. This means that EuroBasket 2015 will take place between
Sep. 5-20, 2015 and will still feature 24 teams but after the
initial group phase (four groups of six teams each) the teams will enter
a knockout phase,” FIBA Europe said.
As reported, FIBA Europe decided to relocate EuroBasket 2015 from
Ukraine to a new destination, during its meeting in Munich, Germany on
Friday.
“The decision was taken after a careful consideration of the
continuous political situation and security issues in Ukraine, which are
deemed as less than favorable for the staging of such an important and
demanding event,” the federation said.
