Maxibasket, or rather the sport of Basketball but practiced at Master level, is having more and more practitioners in the world, in Europe and in Italy, with exponential growth. There are now numerous events that organize Maxibasketball matches. Let’s interview Gianfranco GianiGeneral Manager of FIMBA Italy and President of MAXIPESARO2024 but above all a profound expert on this sporting reality at an international level.
Q.: Gianfranco, can you take a photograph of this movement?
A.: In Italy, not considering the FIP national championships, which also sees a fair presence of players over 45/50 in the lower categories, the so-called “minors”, the bulk of the Masters movement is mainly based on two national championships, organized by CSI and UISP and frequent Master tournaments in various cities. In Europe, apart from the FIMBA Championship which takes place every two years, there is no real championship but several tournaments of a certain importance. I would mention the Master Basket World Cup in April in Split (Croatia), the MAMBBasket in Murcia, Marmaris in Turkey, Balaton Cup in Hungary, the ESBA tournaments, mainly for Baltic teams. Massive presence of large tournaments in Great Britain (England, Scotland, Ireland), especially the GB Masters at the beginning of June.
Q: And in Italy we are approaching the start date of the European Championships and other interesting tournaments…
A: there will be an important international tournament in Venice, the VENICE Masters in July and obviously in Pesaro, from 21 June to 30 June, the 12th FIMBA European Championship (https://www.fimbapesaro2024.com/it/). Registration has closed in recent days and over 200 teams will participate, with the presence of 3,000 athletes aged 35 to 80 and a thousand people following, over the ten days of the Championship.
Q: But if it’s a European Championship, why do teams from overseas participate?
A: Because it is a formula that has already been adopted for some editions, defined as “Open”, that is, non-European teams participate in the initial group stages, together with the European teams, then they follow a separate path and do not compete in the finals. They are called “ambassador teams” and in my opinion it is a positive thing, they liven up the competition. In the end, the important thing is to play and have fun.
D: Great initiatives, also because we will see master players of a certain level challenging themselves like when they were younger, and this also takes on a social value: age must not stop the desire to move, to keep fit and to compete. But what role does the FIP – Italian Basketball Federation have in all this movement?
A: The FIP, unlike other CONI affiliated federations, completely neglects the Masters sector. Swimming, Tennis, Volleyball, Skiing, etc. they have “Master” sections thanks to which athletes no longer in competitive activity can continue to compete with peers of the same age and obtain respectable results in Italy and around the world. It’s a real shame that in Italy the Federation doesn’t care about Over basketball players. We hope that something can change in the near future, but it would take a change of mentality that all of us Over hope for.
