FIBA Europe meets in Gibraltar

GABBA hosted the 3rd meeting of the 2023-27 term of the Board of FIBA Europe this Friday, with some forty delegates from across the world of basketball in attendance. The meeting, held at the Sunborn Yacht Hotel, was officially opened by Minister for Sport Leslie Bruzon, himself a former volunteer youth basketball coach in Gibraltar before being elected to office.
These meetings are held annually in March and November, as well as on the eve of the General Assembly in May. On the agenda was expected to be many of the main issues surrounding the sport at a global level. Observers pointed out that much of the discussions which would take place would probably be the news items on the sport which will appear in the coming weeks in the media, such was the importance of such meetings to the future of the sport.
This was the second time that GABBA hosts this event, the last time being in 2006. However, since then Gibraltar basketball President John Goncalves has risen through the ranks, holding a position in the FIBA Europe board, adding to Gibraltar’s presence within the international governing body of the sport.
Among the 26 members of the Board are two ex-officio members of the very highest level in basketball: FIBA President Sheikh Saud Bin Ali Al-Thani from Qatar, who will be the hosts of the 2027 World Cup, and FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis from Greece, who became only the fourth holder of this position in FIBA’s 86 years when he took over in 2018, following the sudden death of his predecessor, Patrick Baumann.
Among those present were Board President, former Spanish international Jorge Garbajosa, three Vice Presidents, Matej Erjavec (Slovenian), Carmen Tocala (Romania), and Hannes Jonsson (Iceland), Secretary General Kamil Novak (Czechia), and Treasurer Grzegorz Bachanski (Poland) completing the top table.
The other 18 members were Athos Antoniou (Cyprus), Maurizio Bertea (Italy), Huseyin Besok (Türkiye), Ivan Bodrogvary (Hungary), Wolfgang Brenscheidt (Germany), Elisabeth Egnell (Sweden), Manuel Fernandes (Portugal), Arben Fetahu (Kosovo), Stefan Garaleas (Belgium), John Gonçalves (Gibraltar), Georgi Glushkov (Bulgaria), Darius Gudelis (Lithuania), Amiram Halevy (Israel), Maarten Hoffer (Netherlands), Bernard O’Byrne (Ireland), Giancarlo Sergi (Switzerland), Edgars Sneps (Latvia), and Asterios Zois (Greece).
The meeting comes at a time when GABBA celebrates its 60th anniversary.