BEIRUT – FIBA's office in Asia on Thursday conducted an internal workshop for the key personnel, including members of FIBA's office in Oceania, to update and discuss the fantastic opportunities of the new competition and how the Regional office will provide its National Federations with the adequate tools to help them deliver the best product possible.

The workshop was a pilot operation opening the road for similar and more workshops in certain specific National Federations in Asia. The Lebanese National Federations will be involved in a similar workshop over the weekend followed by the Jordanian National Federation after that.

FIBA Regional Director - Asia Mr. Hagop Khajirian stressed on the important role of FIBA's office in Asia in equipping its National Federations by assisting and providing them with guidance in whichever way they should.

“We want this project to succeed and for that we will work closely and effectively with our National Federations to help them develop and be ready by Nov 2017,” he said.

“FIBA's Asia office will organize similar workshops with its National Federations in order to provide them with better understanding and offer them guidance."

"We want Asia to be at the forefront of taking FIBA's mission forward," he said.

“We want the National Federations to embrace FIBA’s new mission and that’s the main purpose of these,” said FIBA Competitions and Sports Director Mr. Predrag Bogosavljev.

"The success of the 2017 Competition depends solely on how well the National Federations deliver the games," he said.

The teams in the Asia region will face off against Australia and New Zealand in two divisions – Division A to qualify directly for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup and Division B as a part of the qualifying process for the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup.

“It’s exciting times for Oceania and especially for both Australia and New Zealand,” said FIBA Oceania Executive Director Mr. David Crocker.

“Playing against the best in Asia will help these two teams (Australia and New Zealand) play in a higher level of competition which will lead to better exposure."

You can find extended details about the new competition system here.

You can watch the below videos describing in detail the new competition system here: