Over 50
The event of the year for the continental basketball Masters is approaching: they will take place in Italy, in Pesaro, from 21st to 30th June. XII FIMBA European Maxibasketball Championships.
Maxibasketball is the sport of basketball practiced from 35 to 80 years of age and over and involves tens of thousands of athletes all over the world, including many former top professionals, also grouped in national teams.
The movement was born in 1969 in Buenos Aires, developed throughout South America in the 70s and 80s, until the first real international championship in Argentina in 1978. In the 90s it expanded throughout the world and today involves dozens of thousands of athletes.
The rules and duration of playing times are exactly the same as the European professional categories. The teams are grouped into 5 year age groups (over 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75 and 80), male and female.
FIMBA, the International MaxiBAsket Federation, organizes alternating World Championships, European Championships, Pan American Championships and World Leagues every two years.
Since 2004, Fimba Italia has had a leading role in the international ranking of MaxiBasket. By collecting medals in the European and World championships, the Fimba Italia teams have earned the respect of their opponents all over the world, and have driven the national MaxiBasket movement, leading to the birth of the MaxiBasket League, for Over 50 teams.
But let’s see what to expect from these Europeans.
The XII FIMBA EUROPEAN Maxibasket Championship is defined as OPEN, meaning non-European teams also participate, who in the First Phase clash with the European teams and subsequently only with each other
Around 200 teams are registered, with over 3,000 athletes and 1,000 people accompanying them.
In 10 days, 600 matches will take place in Pesaro on 14 fields.
There will be 175 European teams: Italy 35, Germany 30, Great Britain 25, Poland 9, Spain 9, Ireland 8, Lithuania 8, Switzerland 7, Estonia 7, Czech Republic 6, Serbia 5, Austria 5, Greece 5, Hungary 4 , Croatia 3, Slovenia 3, Latvia 2, Ukraine 2, Georgia 1, Slovakia 1.
The Russian and Belarusian teams were not allowed to participate, in line with what happens in other team sports.
25 teams from the Rest of the World: Central and South America 17, USA 3, Japan 2, Australia 1, South Korea 1, Jordan 1.
There will be 130 men’s teams and 70 women’s teams.
There will be 9 male categories, divided as always by age, every 5 years: Over 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75.
There will be 7 female categories: Over 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65.
On average, 10 teams in the youngest or oldest categories, 20 in the central age group categories.
There are many Italian clubs present, many with multiple teams, by age category:
FIMBA ITALY
GOLDEN PLAYERS
OVER SPORT ITALY
MAXIBASKET MILAN
MASTER ITALY PEGASO
MAXIBASKET MILAN WOMEN
HIGHLANDER WOMEN PESARO
ITAL BASKETBALL MASTER
NPGR MILAN
BIG BASKETBALL ROME
ITALY BASKETBALL OVER
UNDERDOG ITALY
ITALY is the outgoing European Champion (Malaga 2022) in the Categories: Over 40 (ITALY BASKET OVER), Over 45 (UNDERDOG IT), Over 50, 55 and 60 (FIMBA ITALIA), Over 65 (OVER SPORT).
In the European ranking, Italy is third, behind Russia and Lithuania.
In the last editions of the World and European championships, there were 3 Fimba Italia teams, in the Over 50, 55 and 60 categories. Consider that the current Over 50 and Over 60 teams in 2013 won gold at the World Championships in Thessaloniki, Greece, like Over 40 and 50, coached by Alberto Bucci…
The passage of time required a continuous renewal of the rosters, to the point of making the choice practically “natural”: starting from a new generation of players, 10 years younger, who can repeat the historic exploits of the current teams and start winning everything what their “big brothers” won.
FIMBA Reloaded: here is the new Over 40
The composition of the team was entrusted to Team Manager Paolo Maltinti, who after the victory of the last European Championships in Malaga, with the Over 50s, dedicated himself to the foundation of the national MaxiBasket movement. It is he, with the precious supervision of Lino Lardo, who forms a team that does not hide ambitious objectives and represents, in fact, the “youth” of Master basketball.
The coach of the Over 40 team will be Luca Granchi, from Livorno, born in ’65. He will be the one to guide players of the caliber of Jacopo Giachetti, David Moss and Manuel Carrizo, just to name a few. And the surprises don’t end there.
