The Technical Director of the Liberia Basketball Association (LBA) has informed the management of registered clubs and stakeholders that after several preparations, the association is ready to host the 2024 National Basketball League.
Recently, Benedict Sayeh disclosed that 98 percent of interested clubs in the first, second, and third divisions, as well as female teams, have registered for the Association’s 2024 national league, with the third division teams dominating the roster.
According to Sayeh, what appears to be a more promising future to the holding of the new league season is that all of the registered teams are responding positively to every scheduled engagement with the Association, as they all continue their preparation for the national league.
He said, “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 processes, and we are sure of starting the league in February 2024, and we are pleased to say thank you to all of our stakeholders for their positive responses to our Association’s registration process.”
He narrated that the LBA has completed the training seminars for the Association’s registered coaches and referees, as part of their preparation for the scheduled national league, so that they can help improve their athletes’ skills to international standards, and that they are also planning to participate in the FIBA Africa U-18 tournament, which is scheduled for 2025.
“We organized the training seminar for our coaches and referees because the only way for our Association to progress is to have coaches and referees that know 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 more officials to have us improving in skills for both local and international competitions,” he stressed.
He then described the lifting of FIBA ban on LBA activities as a great and timely decision, hoping that the lifting of the ban would help to revamp basketball competitions in Liberia and also help to reposition the Association in international basketball competitions, as it used to be.
“I classify the lifting of FIBA ban on LBA activities as great and timely because people have realized that it is not one man that can run everything when it comes to basketball development, and they have realized that basketball activities are the combination of all people who have passion for the game. So, it 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,” he noted.
