FIBA Is Founded
June 1932. Eight nations create a world governing body
By the early 1930s, basketball was played in dozens of countries, but often with different rules. A game in Italy could look quite different from one in Argentina.
On 18 June 1932, in Geneva, Switzerland, eight national federations founded the Fédération Internationale de Basketball Amateur, now known as FIBA. The founding members were Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania and Switzerland.
FIBA gave the world one rulebook and one organizer for international play. Within four years it helped bring basketball into the Olympic Games, and it went on to run the World Cup for both men and women.
What changed
One shared rulebook meant teams from different continents could finally play each other on equal terms. Coaching ideas started to travel between countries, a process that still shapes the game today.