Monrovia — The Technical Director of Liberia Basketball Association (LBA) has assured stakeholders of Basketball of LBA preparedness to host the 2024 national league.
Benedict Sayeh in an interview with FrontPage Africa sports desk said 98% of interested first, second, female and third division teams have registered to participate in the 2024 national league.
According to Mr. Sayeh even though first and second division team have showed interest in been part of the upcoming league but third division teams are in majority.
"To show our teams readiness for the LBA 2024 national league, 30 third division teams, 20 second division teams, 11 first division, and eight female division teams have completed their registration process and we are sure of starting the league this February 2024 and we are pleased to say thank you to all of our stakeholders for their positive responses to our association registration process," Sayeh said.
He narrated that the LBA have completed training seminars for the association registered coaches and referees as part of their preparation for the national league so that they can help improve the association athlete's skills to international standard.
Sayeh at the same time said there are a plans for Liberia national team to participate in the FIBA Africa u-18 tournament which is scheduled for 2025.
"We organized the trainings for our coaches and referees because the only way for our association to progress is to have coaches and referees that are knowledgeable about the modern rules of the game so that they can impact those new rules to the young folks and we are going to engage FIBA to send us some international basketball coaches to help us train our coaches and referees so that the skills of those coaches and referees will improve for both local and international competitions." He stressed
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
The association Technical Director described the lifting of FIBA ban on LBA activities as great and timely and hope that the lifting of the ban will help to revamp basketball competitions in Liberia and also help the association readmitted in international basketball competitions.
"I see the lifting of FIBA ban on LBA activities as great and timely because people have realized that is not one man that can run everything when it comes to basketball development and they have realized that basketball activities is the combination of everybody who have passion for the game so is a good thing basketball has come back to reality and we can go back to playing in the fellowship of West African Basketball Union." Mr. Sayeh revealed.
