MOSCOW, August 24. /TASS/. Russia’s regional basketball federations are sending their requests to the RBF (the Russian Basketball Federation) asking to nominate Dmitry Domani, the general manager of the national men’s team, as a candidate for the post of the federation’s president, Andrey Arkhangelsky, the secretary general of the RBF, told TASS on Monday.
RFB’s elections of the president and members of the Executive Committee have been scheduled for August 25 and Russia’s famous ex-basketballer Andrey Kirilenko is currently the only opponent of Domani in the presidential race.
"The RFB received requests from a number of [regional] federations nominating Domani for the post of the federation’s president," Arkhangelsky said in an interview with TASS. "We are currently verifying the correctness of the requests."
"They [the requests] will be all considered within the day and if everything turns out to be all right, Domani will be officially nominated," he said. "We have time for this."
Late last month the RFB has been suspended by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), which cited the lack of transparency in the Russian federation’s management as the reason for its decision. All Russian national basketball teams were suspended from international competitions as a result of the suspension.
However, at a session of the FIBA’s Central Board, which convened on August 8-9 in Tokyo, Japan, it was decided to all the Russian national teams to play at the international level championships, but the suspension of the RFB remained in force.
FIBA’s suspension of the RFB put in extreme jeopardy Russian national men team’s participation in the 2015 FIBA European Championship, to be held between September 5 and 20.
This year’s championship is of a particular value, since it will not only decide the title of the best European basketball team, but also serves as a qualifying tournament for the national teams’ spots at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro.
Earlier in the month, a Moscow Court ruled to oblige the RBF to hold a conference for electing the organization’s new president and executive committee.
Commenting on the RBF suspension, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said in mid-August that "As soon as we restore governance in basketball, we’ll address the issue of the lift of sanctions."