Awards in honor of International Athletes and Sports Journalists to be held in September: Asim Shiraz

PESHAWAR: The General Body Meeting of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sports Writers Association was held under the chairmanship of President Asim Shiraz in which General Secretary Shahid Afridi, Senior Vice President Imran Yousafzai and other officials and members were present. The President of the Association Asim Shiraz in his address announced that next month in August for the members of the KP Sports Writers Association. A proposal has been made to hold an awards ceremony in September with a sports gala to be held.

The best national and international coverage at the event, including Lifetime Achievement Awards for best covering journalists, TV channel reporters and senior journalists. Awards will be given to the best performers for which a committee consisting of senior journalists will be constituted. All Reporters TV, Print Media have been directed to submit their best performance ‘Reports’ videos to the Association till August 31. President The meeting decided to take all possible steps for the success of the International Sports Writers Federation Conference held in Peshawar in the last week of October and assured full cooperation to the Pakistan Sports Writers Federation in this regard.

It was also decided at the meeting that a delegation of officials of Sports Writers Association would soon meet Provincial Sports Minister Atif Khan. This will continue. President Asim Shiraz paid tribute to his colleagues for the excellent coverage and directed that participation in all sports events be ensured.

Dear members of the media,

Please, note that the media accreditation process for FIBA EuroBasket 2022 is now underway.

The event is scheduled to take place September 1-18 in Germany, Czech Republic, Georgia and Italy.

All accreditation requests must be submitted via the FIBA Media Portal.

The deadline to apply is June 15 (23:59 CET).

ON-SITE AND REMOTE COVERAGE
Media representatives, local and visiting, wishing to be present and cover the event from the venue are invited to apply through the FIBA Media Portal. No other form of application will be accepted.

Those who are not planning to travel, but still wish to have access to the teams virtually should still apply via the FIBA Media Portal by selecting the relevant option during the application process.

HOW TO APPLY FOR MEDIA ACCREDITATION

• Log-in to the FIBA Media Portal or, if you are a new user, create a new profile;
• Select the event you wish to attend under the “My Events” section (to be found at the top of profile page);
• Complete all registration fields as necessary;
• IMPORTANT: A “remote coverage accreditation” is available for those NOT planning to travel to the event. This accreditation type will allow you to ask questions to players and coaches virtually during media availability (e.g. via digital channels during pre-event or post-game press conferences).

• Make sure that all tabs are filled out correctly and the information is saved. Following registration, you should receive an accreditation submission confirmation email;
• Creating a profile or logging in to a previously existing account is not an application in itself; you must make certain that after you create a profile (account) you also proceed to apply for the event (as per steps #1-5 above);
• Your email address and password will allow you to access and modify your application form up until the application deadline.  All applicants are responsible for their travel visa, should one be required.

ACCREDITATION DECISIONS
All media representatives will be notified about the success of their applications by July 2, 2022.

FEBRUARY 2, 2022

MIES (Switzerland) – FIBA’s Executive Committee convened by video conference today for their first meeting of 2022. The meeting came on the eve of a busy month with two important world cup qualifying events in February – the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 Qualifying Tournaments and the second window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers, as well as the FIBA Intercontinental Cup 2022.

Below are the main takeaways from the meeting.

Updates on FIBA Competitions for 2022-2023

Status reports were presented on preparations for the upcoming FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 Qualifying Tournaments tipping off on February 10 in the cities of Washington D.C., Belgrade and Osaka. Two games will also be played in Santo Domingo due to travel and health restrictions in the USA. Preparations also on the upcoming second window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers were received, with 92 games to be played across the FIBA regions starting on February 24. 

Updates were also given on the current preparations underway for the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2022 and the FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022. The men’s event will take place in Spain from July 2 to 10 and the women’s in Hungary from July 9 to 17. 

Status reports were presented on the ongoing preparations for FIBA’s flagship women’s events, the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022.

Women’s Competition System 

After reviewing the current women’s competition system, and with a view to offer a sufficient number of competitive games to emerging National Federations, the Executive Committee has accepted the recommendation of the Competitions Commission to implement a new competition that will act as pre-qualifiers to the next World Cup or to the next Olympic Games. The 16 best-placed teams, four from each region, that did not qualify for the FIBA Women’s World Cup, or the Olympic Games respectively, will participate in the event to be played every two years starting in August 2024. The winner of this competition will directly qualify for the next Qualification Tournament, either for the World Cup or Olympic Games.

FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 European Qualifiers

Following a recommendation by FIBA’s Competitions Commission, and in order to extend the period between the last game of the fourth window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 European Qualifiers and the first day of the FIBA EuroBasket 2022, the games of the fourth window of the World Cup qualifier will be moved forward by one day, being played on August 24 and 25 (Gameday 1) and then August 27 and 28 (Gameday 2). This change will allow teams to have at least three days before the start of the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 on September 1.

Club Competitions

The Executive Committee heard updates from the Basketball Champions League (BCL) and the Basketball Champions League Americas (BCLA), with both leagues currently in progress. A status update on the preparations for the upcoming FIBA Intercontinental Cup 2022 was given, with the event to take place for the first time in Africa, in Cairo, from February 11 to 13. With a spectacular draw ceremony held in front of the Giza Plateau in Egypt in January, this year’s edition is poised to further enhance the tournament’s unique transatlantic status by becoming the first club competition in basketball history to feature contenders that will be representing four different regional leagues.

The Pakistan Cricket Board’s Medical Advisory Panel has put together robust Health and Safety Protocols for all participants of the HBL Pakistan Super League 2022, which will be played in Karachi and Lahore from 27 January to 27 February.

The Health and Safety Protocols document has been designed to ensure health and safety of all participants as well as to provide them safe and secure environment to prepare, play and perform in the PCB’s marquee event.

Salient features of the Health and Safety Protocols are:

Testing

·       The three-day room isolation commenced on 20 January. Participants will now be allowed to enter the Managed Event Environment and integrate with their sides only following two negative tests

·       In the event period from 27 January to 7 February, all participants will undergo four PCR tests

·       After being tested upon arrival in Lahore, all participants will undergo seven PCR tests from 10-27 February

·       There will be mandatory seven-day isolation for any participant who tests positive. On day seven, the participant will undergo a Rapid Antigen Test and will be allowed to re-integrate with the side if he tests negative. In the scenario of a positive result, the participant will isolate for another three days before re-integrating with the side without requesting an exit test

·       For a player or player support staff to enter or re-enter the Managed Event Environment, three-day isolation is mandatory and will require two negative tests before re-integrating with the side

Hotel

·       Each side is allotted rooms on separate floors of the hotel and maximum possible efforts has been made to avoid cross-interaction between teams at the hotel

·       During the mandatory quarantine period at the hotel, housekeeping staff will not be permitted to enter the guest rooms for servicing. Additional towels, bed linen, water, food, etc. will be placed outside individual rooms by hotel staff wearing a surgical mask who shall ring the doorbell after placing such items and leave. Members should open the door and collect the items a minute after the hotel staff has left

·       After the quarantine period, rooms may be serviced by dedicated housekeeping staff while ensuring that the guest is not inside their room

·       Each side has been allocated dedicated common rooms and players/player support personnel are not allowed to use other team’s common room

·       Delivery of food from outside through an approved delivery service is allowed. The delivery, however, will be received by the designated staff members, who will sanitise the packages and place at a designated spot on the team floor. Members, after consuming the food, will be required to wash their hands for 20 seconds

Venue

·       Dressing rooms will be sanitised by dedicated staff before the teams’ arrival; those with dressing room access will have to maintain social distancing

·       Players cannot use saliva and will also have to use their own equipment

·       All ground staff will undergo PCR test 48 hours or less before their first interaction with the players, player support staff, match officials and will always be required to wear a facemask, covering nose and mouth at all times when on field

·       For the warm-ups, players are not required to wear facemasks but must avoid touching their face, nose, mouth and eyes.

·       At the toss, there will be social distancing and no handshakes

·       Post-match, both playing teams and officials will avoid handshakes, while the presentation ceremony will take place in a zero-contact manner

Management of suspected cases

·       Suspect/positive cases will be immediately isolated from rest of the squad by the Team Doctor/Team Manager

·       Individual isolated due to suspected symptoms will be immediately tested by PCR for Covid-19

·       All individuals who have been in close contact (same team, individuals on the same floor or any interaction of longer than 15 minutes from less than two meters) with the case during the previous 48 hours starting from the time of  collection of the sample which resulted in a positive test, will be isolated and tested

·       All casual contacts in the last 48 hours starting from the time of collection of the sample, which resulted in a positive test, will also be isolated and tested immediately

·       All staff handling positive cases will wear a full PPE kit while handling a suspected/positive COVID-19 case

·       The Team Physio will regularly monitor the case and share information with, if required

·       If symptoms worsen during the course of isolation, the individual will be hospitalized

List of breaches and sanctions

·       The following will be constituted as minor breaches:

o   Not maintaining social distancing of, at least, six-feet with people outside the designated zone(s)

o   Sharing drinks, water bottles, equipment, clothing, towels, and kits with others

o   Handshakes with other participants before and after the match

o   Not removing dirty laundry from the ground / dressing room after the end of the match

o   Going into an occupied isolation room without approval from the Match Manager

o   Physiotherapists / Masseurs not wearing masks covering their nose and mouths during treatments

o   Engaging in individual physiotherapy sessions more than 15 minutes in duration

o   Being present in a restricted area without authorisation

o   Meeting anyone from outside the designated bubble other than those on Field of Play

o   Breaching any of the Protocols as outlined in the HBL PSL Health and Safety Protocols

·       The following will be constituted as major breaches:

o   Visiting or allowing anyone inside hotel room other than maintenance staff

o   Not wearing a face mask covering the nose and mouth when required to do so

o   Exiting room during quarantine except for when permitted to do so by the relevant BBIM

o   Procuring any item from outside the relevant bubble without informing the relevant BBIM

o   Not providing symptom update when asked to do so by the relevant BBIM

o   Not informing the relevant BBIM about developing symptoms

o   Taking any measure / medication that could mask symptoms or alter test results

o   Meeting any person who is currently symptomatic or has tested positive

o   Sharing any information related to Covid cases and/or symptomatic individuals with any unauthorised personnel outside the relevant Managed Event Environment

·       The following range of sanctions will be available to the Tournament Covid Management Committee

o   Warning / reprimand

o   Imposition of match fee deduction from 5 per cent – 25 per cent

o   Imposition of match fee deduction from 25 per cent – 50 per cent and/or 1-5 match ban

o   Expulsion from the League (including revocation of Accreditation)

o   Financial Penalty / Fine ranging from PKR50K-PKR500K (depending on the severity of the breach), which may be deducted from the offender’s contract/agreement with the PCB or PSL.

·       Where there exists a reasonable suspicion that the bio-secure environment has been compromised, the Pakistan Cricket Board may, in its discretion, require any participant to quarantine/isolate in their hotel room for any number of days and undergo repeated PCR testing as advised. The same shall take into consideration any relevant medical advice and local government requirements.