FIBA- What is The League?

The FIBA

The FIBA was created in 1932, as the governing body for international amateur basketball. For the first thirty-three years, it operated as a nonprofit organization. In 1995, the organization became a full member of SportAccord and later that year, it also became a founding member of the International World Games Association.

In 1996, the FIBA agreed to create its own events calendar covering all continental championships and World Championships for women. This move changed the way basketball is played internationally forever by giving more opportunities to countries that may not have had an opportunity to play on a world stage before.

In 2000, FIBA launched the worldwide "Got Game" campaign, which aimed at increasing awareness of basketball's popularity and improving participation rates around the globe. They developed several initiatives to make playing basketball accessible to children and adults alike.

Today, with over 200 members around the world, FIBA has been an important part of international basketball and continues to be so into its second decade as a sport association!

The Future of the FIBA

In the future, the FIBA is hoping to expand its membership. The goal of the organization is to have all 200 national federations as members and reach a total number of 400 members. These goals are ambitious and make it clear that the future of basketball will be led by this organization.

A major reason for this hope is in 2020, when Tokyo will host the Olympic Games; Japan is not a member of the FIBA currently. Japan has one of the most competitive teams in Asia and would provide a valuable addition to an already incredible roster.

The History of the FIBA

The FIBA, otherwise known as the Fédération Internationale de Basketball Amateur, was established all the way back in 1932. The organization is under the jurisdiction of six continental federations and has members in over 200 countries across all six continents.

The FIBA’s original purpose was to guide amateur players and teams throughout Europe and other parts of the world by establishing a set of rules and regulations that would govern the game of basketball. Up until this time, there were no universal rules or regulations that governed the game of basketball outside of North America.

However, as European teams began to grow more competitive internationally and started to win games against American squads, it became clear that there needed to be more structure and a hierarchy to international play. In 1946, at a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, a committee was created with representatives from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Romania, Soviet Union and Yugoslavia which later became known as FIBA.

In 1951 when the first European Championship tournament took place in Rome, Italy where France became champions for the first time it officially marked the transition from an amateur organization into an official governing body for international basketball.

Since then it has grown tremendously around the world with representation on every continent except Antarctica.

National Federations

The FIBA has a total of 200 national federations that are spread across six continents. These members fall into three regions: Africa, Asia, and North America. These federations all have their own governing bodies that deal with basketball at the national level. Some of these are affiliated with other organizations, like the European or Asian basketball confederation.

In order to become a part of the FIBA, one must be a member of a national federation. Alternatively, you can become a part of the regional confederation your geographical area falls under. These federations come from countries all over the world such as Argentina, Australia, and Brazil.

Regional Confederations

Governed by the FIBA, there are six regional confederations. These confederations are broken up by geographic region and oversee their respective countries. This article will focus on the North American Confederation as it is one of the six regions overseen by the FIBA.

The North American Confederation is divided into two sub-confederations: Central America and Caribbean. The Central American Sub-Confederation oversees countries like Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua and more. The Caribbean sub-confederation is made up of countries like Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominican Republic and more.

Each region has their own set of regulations for their basketball leagues. For example, in this region (North America) there are requirements to have at least three players on a team as well as a maximum number of players that can be on the court at one time.