At today’s General Assembly of the 50 European Basketball Federations, Mr. Giorgios Vassilakopoulos from Greece has been elected new President of FIBA-Europe for the 2002 – 2006 term of office.

In a first reaction after the election he stated: ‘The autonomous FIBA-Europe, within FIBA, has become a reality. In this new period our main mission is to respect the principles and values of sport, the sports institutions and the traditional sports structure, on the basis of the
pyramid: Sports Clubs – National Federations – International Federation. The better days of European basketball are in front of us, we can reach them with hard and efficient work, but, above all with unity.’

Aged 60 years, Giorgios Vassilakopoulos currently holds the position of President of the Hellenic Basketball Federation. He is a member of the Greek National Olympic Committee and from 1993-1996 he was Secretary General for
Sport of the Hellenic Republic. He studied economics at the University of Athens and is owner of a flourishing factory in the paper industry. In his active career he played for the Greek National Team and the club team of Panathinaikos Athens before he continued his career as a coach and a
referee. He is married and has three children.

Mr. Jan Berteling from the Netherlands has been elected new treasurer of FIBA-Europe. He succeeds Mr. Manfred Ströher from Germany who held the position for 8 years and did not put forward his candidature for FIBA-Europe.

The following members of the European Board of FIBA-Europe have been elected:
Mr. Walther Kaszelik, Austria
Mr. Cyriel Coomans, Belgium
Mr. Kosta Iliev, Bulgaria
Mr. Boris Lalic, Croatia
Mr. Milos Prazak, Czech Republic
Mrs. Betty Codona, England
Mr. Jose Luis Saez Regalado, Spain
Mr. Valdu Suurkask, Estonia
Mr. Yvan Mainini, France
Mr. Peter Klingbiel, Germany
Mr. Asterios Zois, Greece
Mr. Ivan Bodrogvary, Hungary
Mr. Olafur Rafnsson, Iceland
Mr. Dan Kesten, Israel
Mr. Fausto Maifredi, Italy
Mr. Sarunas Marciulionis, Lithuania
Mr. Antonio Mizzi, Malta
Mr. Marek Palus, Poland
Mr. Valery Kuzin, Russia
Mrs. Lena Wallin Kantzy, Sweden
Mr. Kemal Dincer, Turkey
Mr. Alexander Volkov, Ukraine
Mr. Predrag Danilovic, Yugoslavia

In their first meeting after the election the European Board has appointed Mr. Valery Kuzin (Russia) and Mr. Boris Lalic (Croatia) as Vice-Presidents of FIBA-Europe. The four European representatives of FIBA-Europe on the FIBA
Central Board (World) will be Mr. Vassilakopoulos, Mrs. Wallin, Mr. Mainini and Mr. Maifredi.

The European Board has also decided that the headquarters of FIBA-Europe will remain in Munich.

To ensure a smooth transition and the operational functioning of this new entity, the Board appointed Mr. Patrick Baumann (Deputy Secretary General of FIBA) as Executive Director for FIBA-Europe and Mr. Lubomir Kotleba (FIBA Sports Director) as Sports Director for FIBA-Europe. Both will remain in office for an interim time until the end of this year only.

FIBA-Europe will also set up a company in Munich, which will carry out all commercial activities of FIBA-Europe in accordance with the decisions taken by the Board of FIBA-Europe and the Central Board of FIBA in November 2001.
Mr. Jiri Zednicek (Czech Republic) has been appointed as Managing Director of this FIBA-Europe subsidiary.

The European Board has also approved the general principles of a completely new system of European Club Competitions. The new FIBA-Europe Cup will be played in a Three-Conference System with a final pan-European phase. In
principle, the Northern Conference will be managed by Mr. Algimantas Pavilionis (Lithuania), the Southern Conference by Mr. Iliev (Bulgaria) and the Western Conference by Mr. Jiri Zednicek (Czech Republic). Details for the next season will be worked out shortly and communicated to all National
Federations during the month of June.

The European Board has appointed the Presidents for following Commissions according to the new Bye Laws of FIBA-Europe:
President of the Technical Commission:
Mr. Valdu Suurkask
President of the Competitions Commission:
Mr. Dan Kesten
President of the Women’s Commission:
Mr. Alexander Boshkov, Bulgaria
President of the Youth Commission:
Mr. Asterios Zois
President of the Finance Commission:
Mr. Jan Berteling
President of the Legal Commission:
Mr. Marek Palus
President of the Appeal’s Commission:
Mr. Antonio Mizzi

The European Board has also appointed the following persons as:
Competition Judge:
Mr. Alfred Drost, Germany
Judge to the Appeal’s Commission:
Mr. Ulrich Haas, Switzerland
Adviser for Medical Affairs:
Dr. Jacques Huguet, France
Adviser for European AIPS affairs:
Mr. Noah Klieger, Israel
Adviser for Affairs for persons with a disability
Mr. Jan Berteling

For more details please contact:

Jon Ingram
FIBA Communications Dept
T: (49+89) 74 81 58-0
F: (49+89) 74 81 58-33
E: communications@office.fiba.com
W: http:\www.fiba.com