UEFA get basketball backing

President and CEO
UEFA President Lennart Johansson and CEO Lars-Christer Olsson held talks with FIBA Europe president George Vassilakopoulos, secretary general Nar Zanolin and board members Lena Wallin Kantzy and Asterios Zois.

Sport's specificity
"The meeting was part of continued talks by UEFA and FIBA Europe to raise, among other problems, the issue of the specificity of sport in Europe," said UEFA on Monday. The meeting centred on the recognition of sport's specificity, sport as a social expression, problems with player contracts and establishing special status for sportsmen and women. Talks also focused on the recognition of the federative system at national and international levels, betting matters and doping issues.

EU recognition
European football's governing body has been campaigning for several years to ensure that sport's specificity is recognised by the European political authorities and included in future European Union legislation. Both UEFA and FIBA Europe have already met with EU Commissioner for Sport and Education, Jan Figel, to discuss official EU recognition of sport as a social expression with a specific role in society.

Similar concerns
"We are very happy at the outcome of this meeting," said Mr Johansson and Mr Vassilakopoulos in a joint statement. "UEFA and FIBA Europe face very similar concerns in running our respective sports and we found that we agreed 100 per cent on all the issues that we discussed today. We are determined to work together to safeguard the future of the sports movement in Europe."

Regular contact
UEFA and FIBA Europe agreed to maintain regular contact and co-operate in coming months to address the above issues. UEFA is also to invite other European team sports federations to join the discussion by convening a meeting.