Basketball: Ivory Coast federation wants its own Arena
Basketball: the Ivorian Basketball Federation (FIBB) wants its own Arena, on Sport News Africa
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Back from Senegal, where he watched ABC qualify for the final phase of the 2023 Basketball Africa League, Ivorian Basketball Federation president Mahama Coulibaly met Mehmet Ali Gultekin of the Turkish company Kelesuglu Holding. In a good atmosphere, the talks focused on building an Arena dedicated to basketball. With the Ivory Coast keen to host the next Afrobasket, the country wants to put infrastructure in place quickly to stage the event.
The company's representative expressed his delight at the Elephants qualifying for the upcoming World Cup. He was also pleased to meet the leaders of Ivorian basketball for the first time. However, in his remarks, Ali Gultekin set out the various steps (including the acquisition of 20 hectares of land) needed to build this futuristic venue, which would take between 9 and 12 months of work and would allow the Ivory Coast to play a leading role on the continent.
Bringing in the Ministry of Sports
The meeting was a preliminary step ahead of a meeting with Sports Minister Danho Paulin, to take the project to the Ivorian state. One of the FIBB's major projects is to encourage the construction of a 12,000-seat basketball Arena in the Abidjan district, as well as 14 multipurpose indoor halls across the 14 regional districts of the Ivory Coast, along with a basketball city in Bassam that would house the FIBB headquarters and the federal academy. At the meeting, the FIBB president was accompanied by Ouattara Fétigué (FIBB vice-president), Kouakou N'dri (assistant national technical director), Lath Serge (infrastructure manager) and Mrs Coulibaly Danhon (social affairs manager).
Sanh Séverin (with Sercom FIBB)