SAN JUAN (Americas) - The regional office of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) in the Americas announced it will make a historic visit to Costa Rica next week, from August 28 to September 2 to join scheduled meetings with government officials, the national basketball federation in the country, private entities and the media.

Costa Rica is added to the list of countries visited in the previously announced program where 23 countries in the Americas are scheduled to be visited in three phases. Paraguay was the first to be visited and the meetings produced important results for the future of basketball in the country and for its national team. 

The first phase of the visits concluded before July, with visits to Bahamas, Panama, Cuba and Venezuela. The visits have the main objective of strengthening relations towards implementation of FIBA’s New Competition System coming into effect in 2017.

Costa Rica, who finished ninth at the 2016 Centrobasket Championship, will play in Division B where they will try to qualify to Division A at the 2021 FIBA Americup cycle.

The new FIBA Calendar and Competition System from 2017 onwards opens a new era for basketball all over the world - one which features 1,680 top players during 1,200 national teams games and millions of fans all around the globe.

This new system will serve as a qualifier to the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup World Cup to be played in China and that for the first time in its history will have 32 participating teams (7 from the Americas). Qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will go through the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup and four Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.

"For FIBA Americas it is a great satisfaction to announce Costa Rica as the next country to be visited in this ambitious program focused on the future of our national federations in the continent," said the President of FIBA in the Americas, Mr Usie Richards.

"It is very important that Costa Rica and the country's sports entities understand in detail the great challenge that this new competition system will entail for the Costa Rican Basketball Federation (FECOBA) and we want to assist them in having their opportunities maximized and establishing a work plan guaranteeing that the future implementation is a resounding success. The reception they have planned ahead of our visit is a great first step on the road to making this a reality."

FIBA