The Federation wants a number of written guarantees to be able to validate the site at a meeting of its office next March, said the same source.
Designated in the fall of 2020 by the Paris-2024 Organizing Committee (Cojo) as the new site for the men's and women's Olympic basketball tournaments (5x5) before a migration to Bercy from the quarter-finals, the Parc des Expositions de Porte de Versailles, the venue for the agricultural fair, has never hosted sports competitions, underlines Fiba.
"There are still a lot of question marks to be raised", his secretary general Andreas Zagklis had blurted out on Monday without stretching out at the end-of-year press conference of the International Federation.
Hall 6, inside which must be built the equivalent of a sports enclosure (bleachers, changing rooms), poses constraints that worry Fiba: pillars that can affect the quality of broadcasts and an insufficient ceiling height of 9 meters, list the same source.
The French players of the national basketball team after their victory against Serbia for the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics on August 7, 2021 in Saitama, Japan Thomas COEX AFP / Archives
The Federation is also attentive to the good air conditioning of the room and makes a safety argument: the humidity of the air and therefore of the ground could jeopardize the physical integrity of the players.
La Fiba believes that it was faced with a fait accompli at the time of the relocation without consultation, according to it, of the preliminary towers at the Porte de Versailles.
"A solution, let's say, creative," Andreas Zagklis described on Monday.
Plan B
A new map of the Olympics-2024, cut off from four sites, was unveiled in the fall of 2020 by the Cojo to save money.
By a set of musical chairs, swimming, initially planned in Seine-Saint-Denis, moved to La Défense Arena.
This pushed artistic gymnastics towards Bercy where all the Olympic 5x5 basketball tournaments were to be held - the 3x3 is scheduled at Place de la Concorde.
The players of the French men's basketball team, from behind, before the final against the United States at the Tokyo Olympics on August 7, 2021 in Saitama, Japan Thomas COEX AFP / Archives
"If we cannot have there (Porte de Versailles, editor's note) what an Olympic basketball tournament deserves, given the immense popularity of this sport and the success of the French teams, we will be ready to discuss a plan B ", floated on Monday Andreas Zagklis by slipping that there were" other solutions that could examine Paris-2024 ".
The French won the silver medal at the Tokyo Games and the French women the bronze.
"We are confident about the studies in progress on the fittings of Hall 6 of the Exhibition Center, reacted the Cojo to AFP. They will allow us to respond favorably to the requirements of FIBA and thus create the conditions for an optimal experience. in 2024. "
© 2021 AFP