Ukraine & Hungary to Host EuroBasket 2015

Ukraine will host EuroBasket 2015 while EuroBasket Women 2015 will be hosted in Hungary, FIBA has announced.

The proposed venues for EuroBasket 2015 are in the cities of Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk and the capital Kyiv for the First Round. Odessa, Lviv and again Kyiv will then play host to the Second Round and the Finals.

FIBA Europe President Olafur Rafnsson, who announced the decision, said: “I would like to congratulate Ukraine and the large delegation of important personalities that came to Munich to support the bid.

“We all know that Ukraine is a big country, we have detected a lot of enthusiasm and the will to become one of the powerhouses of European basketball and I think they have everything they need to succeed. They have been organising and will organise big sporting events with great success.”

Ukraine was the only candidate to host EuroBasket 2015 following the withdrawal of a joint bid by Croatia, France, Germany and Italy last week.

Sergey Bubka, the legendary Olympic gold medallist and six-time world champion pole vaulter, who fronted the Ukrainian bid in his current capacity as National Olympic Committee (NOC) President was elated with the decision.

“This is a great historical decision for Ukrainian sport, for Ukrainian basketball and European Basketball and we promise to deliver the best EuroBasket in our country,” he said.

Ukrainian Basketball Federation President Oleksandr Volkov added: “Ukraine is a big country and I am sure that the EuroBasket will unite it in the same way that football has done now.”

Meanwhile, Hungary was granted hosting duties for EuroBasket Women in 2015 as a result of a majority vote by the Board after it evaluated its bid and that of the other candidate, Belarus.

“I would like to congratulate the host but also the Belarusian Federation for their willingness to host such a big event, and I’d like to tell them ‘Don’t give up, continue to work hard,'” said FIBA Europe Secretary General Nar Zanolin.

“To the Hungarian Federation I’d like to say that there will be demands for an event of such high level, but knowing the people that will work for this event I am more than sure that all requirements will be met.”

Hungarian Secretary of State for Sport Attila Czene – a former Olympic gold medal winning medley swimmer – was delighted with the announcement.

“We can now happily tell everyone that we will host EuroBasket Women 2015 and we are extremely happy for that because it means we will go on with continuing to build the necessary infrastructure, as we will also bid for the Youth Olympics in 2017,” he said.

“Our aim in Hungary is to invest in sport and basketball is a main team sport. As a former Olympic champion, I am happy that we can reintroduce team sport in Hungary. Basketball is a bit behind handball right now and we are trying to close this gap, with 2015 we can start making progress.”

The proposed EuroBasket Women 2015 venues are in the cities of Sopron, Gyor, Szombathely, Veszprem and the capital Budapest.