By Duncan Mackay

EuroBasket 2015 tournament directorNovember 20 - EuroBasket 2015 in Ukraine is to be led by Markiyan Lubkivsky, the man who helped make this year' UEFA European Championships so successful, it has been announced.


Lubkivsky oversaw Euro 2012 in Ukraine, which they co-hosted with Poland, and he formally finished his job as director there yesterday.

He will take up the role full-time of tournament director at EuroBasket 2015 in the New Year.

"I am very grateful to the Basketball Federation of Ukraine for their offer to lead the preparation of a basketball tournament in terms of its organisation and the projects close to those that we prepared for Euro 2012," said Lubkivsky.

"I think the local Organising Committee of EuroBasket 2015 will begin its work in February 2013."

Ukraine were awarded the men's tournament by world governing body FIBA in Munich last December, a bid that was led by world pole vault record holder Sergey Bubka, in his role as head of the National Olympic Committee. 

A total of 24 teams are due to take part in the tournament which will have matches in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and the capital Kyiv for the first round with Odessa, Lviv and again Kyiv hosting the second round and the finals.

Ukraine will be hoping to emulate the success of Euro 2012, which broke attendance records, and which culminated in the final at the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv with Spain beating Italy 4-0.

Spain celebrate winning Euro 2012Spain celebrate winning Euro 2012 in the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv

"We will be able to organise the draw and EuroBasket 2015 on such a high level as the Euro 2012 European Football Championship was held," said Lubkivsky.

"We have profound knowledge, so it won't be a problem to organise EuroBasket 2015.

"However, we should start preparing already, because it is a complex project that requires significant effort."

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