For a week Martina Franca will be the capital of basketball, in Puglia and beyond. The city of the Itria Valley is preparing to host a series of important basketball events, above all the national federal referee training school which will be preceded by a conference on the referee figure. It will be this last meeting, entitled “The man in gray – The referee in modern basketball”, which will inaugurate the full basketball program today, Wednesday 5 June at 5.30 pm at the Hotel Villa Rosa. Participating in the event will be, among others, FIP Commissioner Luigi Lamonica and the Apulian Serie A referees, as well as FIP vice president Margaret Gonnella.
The conference will be held on the eve of the start of the refereeing school which will take place, again in Martina Franca, from 6 to 9 June: «Puglia – explains the president of Fip Puglia Francesco Damiani – has been chosen by the Italian Referee Committee as the venue for a of the three national referee schools. The best Serie C referees in Southern Italy will be present in Martina Franca. An investiture that honors Puglia and rewards a center with a great basketball tradition.”
Thirty whistlers are expected to be engaged in theoretical and practical lessons and in refereeing the matches of an under 19 quadrangular tournament which will be held at the Pala Wojtyla from 6 to 8 June, with the participation of New Basket Brindisi, Fortitudo Francavilla, Basket Fasano and Cus Bari and two daily meetings at 5pm and 7pm. But that’s not all: on Friday 7th at 6pm a meeting with the Fip clubs of the province of Taranto will be held at the Hotel Villa Rosa, while on Sunday 9th the Pala Wojtyla will reopen its doors for the traditional Trophy of the Provinces, reserved for athletes of the 2011 class from all over the region.
A very rich calendar of training and competition, organized by the Fip Puglia committee with the patronage of the Municipality of Martina Franca and the collaboration of the NewGen Basket Martina company: «We have been working for weeks – observes the Fip Taranto delegate Nico Valzani – to best welcome the many participants in such different initiatives. We are happy to be able to host all the actors of the basketball movement in Puglia and Martina Franca, from referees to managers through to young athletes. A great organizational effort made possible by the sensitivity of the local municipal administration.”
