MIES, Switzerland – FISU and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the world’s governing body for basketball, renewed their productive and close collaboration for another four years, until 2023.
FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis welcomed FISU President Oleg Matytsin earlier this week at the House of Basketball in Mies, where the pair signed the agreement that will see the two International Federations work closely together to continue having basketball as an integral part of the FISU sports programme, with the flagship event being the Summer Universiade. Basketball has been one of the most popular and attractive sports at the biennial international multi-sport event organized for university athletes ever since its inaugural edition in 1959 in Turin, Italy.
FISU also organises, in collaboration with FIBA, an annual 32-team event called the University World Cup – 3×3, where players represent their universities rather than national teams and the winner earns a FIBA 3×3 World Tour berth.
The agreement also includes the undertanding that upon request from FISU, FIBA will appoint Technical Delegates to oversee operational aspects of basketball competition at the Universiades and the University World Cups. In the latest collaboration, FISU suggested to FIBA that university competitions should be used as a development platform for experimenting with new rules and the testing of new equipment.