Cyprus showed the way.

At a press conference held in Riga, Latvia, one day before the final of the FIBA EuroBasket 2025, FIBA Europe President Jorge Garbajosa and Secretary General Kamil Novak made special reference to Cyprus and the hosting of Group C, with both officials speaking in the highest terms about our country.

FIBA Europe Secretary General Kamil Novak emphasized that Cyprus made a historic investment with the renovation of the Spyros Kyprianou Sports Centre, noting that the outcome exceeded every expectation:

“I want to thank all the countries that undertook the organization. FIBA EuroBasket 2025 proved that Europe can rise to the occasion even in these difficult times. I want to refer specifically to Cyprus, where the government made a huge investment in renovating the arena. For such a small country, this is a historic moment. The top political leadership supported the event. Perhaps you have heard, but we believe that the hotel which hosted the FIBA EuroBasket teams in Limassol is the best of all time.

Cyprus is a member of the European Federation, so it had the right to request to host FIBA EuroBasket. We knew from the start that it is a small country. We asked the officials for their plan, knowing that this event would be the biggest ever hosted in the region. I won’t hide the fact that our biggest concern was the arena, since we place great importance on the venues that host the event. We were presented with a plan and, while sometimes what is presented differs from the final result, in Cyprus we had a 120% final outcome compared to what was presented! I will be surprised if I hear even the slightest complaint about Cyprus. I have already heard many positive comments from the media. Congratulations to Cyprus!

We will always need one or two major basketball countries in the organization, but that does not mean that other countries cannot become part of such a major event. Cyprus showed the way, and I believe it will make use of the arena not only for future basketball competitions, but also for other sports.”

FIBA Europe President Jorge Garbajosa, for his part, underlined that despite its small size, Cyprus demonstrated that it can successfully respond to such a large-scale event:

“Cyprus is a small country, but their organization was very big. We have very high expectations for the event. So, while Cyprus may be small in size, it showed what it can achieve. I want to thank the presidents and the LOC for the tremendous work they did. They fulfilled every standard of the competition, and we would like to see this repeated in the near future.”