Olympics: FIBA optimistic Lille will be ready for hosting basketball competition at Paris 2024

Mies (Switzerland), Dec 13 Andreas Zagklis, the Secretary General of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), said Monday he is optimistic the Paris 2024 will get the desired results at the venue in Lille for the group phase of the basketball competition.

"That would be the first for basketball," Zagklis said at an online annual meeting for FIBA. "Basketball should contribute to the success of the Olympics, on the financial side, playing in a bigger venue in order to have 25,000-27,000 people attending. Even it would in Lille."

The Paris 2024 decided to move the preliminary phase of the Olympic basketball competition to the Pierre Mauroy stadium in Lille and keep the knock-out round in Paris as scheduled.

FIBA Central Boarding meeting on December 2 "conditionally" approved the decision, citing the concerns about the safety of the athletes.

"We can compromise where we play the preliminary phase, but we can not compromise when it comes to the safety and security of our athletes," Zagklis said. "This means good work has to be done. This is what the condition is all about."

The Pierre Mauroy stadium, built in 2012, has a capacity of 27,000 and is the home of Lille Olympique Sporting Club, a football club. It is equipped with a roof enabling it to switch from an open stadium to a closed facility in just 30 minutes, reports Xinhua.

"We have seen progress in the last two months, more positive than in the past, both on the environment and on the attitude. We're optimistic we will arrive at the desired results as long as we have clear, a joint commitment not to spare any efforts or resources on the utmost conditions for athletes," Zagklis added.

Talking about the decision from the Olympic Summit about the participation of athletes of Russia and Belarus in international competitions, the Secretary-General said it's too late.

According to the qualification rules of Paris 2024, the results from the World Cups are related to the Olympic qualifiers. Both Russia and Belarus were banned from the 2022 Women's WC in Australia and the qualifying tournament for the 2023 Men's WC in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.

"Belarus cannot qualify for the Paris 2024, according to the current qualification tournament, in men and women. Same to Russian women," Zagklis explained. "The qualifying points have been gathered, so we are waiting for the next call with the leadership of IOC. We'll see what the guidelines are and we'll see what the next steps are."