The first, in all deaf sports history at all, deaf basketball referee clinic in Stockholm, Sweden gathered a sum of 11 deaf referees from Europe, Chinese Taipei, New Zealand and USA and was a real hit. The Deaf International Basketball Federation, DIBF, called for this clinic and arranged it together with Stockholm Basketball Association and FIBA. The participants all hold referee licences of different levels from their home countries.

FIBA Sports Director Lubomir Kotleba who was invited by the DIBF to this historical event to act as the FIBA representative and lecturer, said "I am very happy to be part of this event and welcome this development to include deaf referees in the FIBA family. Some of the deaf referees hold a surprisingly high and even level and I will not be surprised to see some of them in the future holding FIBA Referee Licence."

Orjan Engberg, Stockholm Basketball Association, FIBA Commissioner and lecturer at the clinic said "Now that the sounding devices more and more are complementing with visual signals it will be easier for deaf referees with their use to different visual signals to take place among the normal hearing referees. I welcome this development and it is a real honour for Stockholm Basketball Association to be arranging this clinic together with the Deaf International Basketball Federation. The clinic was very well organised and we are all very happy with it."

The clinic dealt with FIBA rules and different international officiating of games. The FIBA International licensed Oscar Lefwert and Asa Johansson informed and trained the deaf participants in three-referees officiating and mechanics.

Following deaf referees participated in the clinic:

Jerzy Bednarczuk and Roland Sovarzo - Germany
Chara Grammatoglou and Toni Koutsoumaris - Greece
Fabio Scarpa - Italy
Per Pilstrom - Sweden,
Hsin-dar Lee - Taiwan,
Marsha Wetzel and Chris Miller - USA
Yuri Strelets - Ukraine

After finishing the clinic DIBF International Referee Licence and Referee Evaluating Authority was delivered.

Nearest task for the deaf referees will be the 2nd DIBF Deaf World Basketball Championships arranged in Guangzhou, China 22-30 June 2007. 16 men and 9 women teams have confirmed their participation.

The participants of the clinic also decided to found the International Deaf Basketball Referee Association with the aim to help the DIBF with deaf referee questions, contacts with FIBA referee association, development and encouragement of new deaf referees, rules and arrangement of future deaf referee clinics. Interimistic president is Marsha Wetzel and secretary Per Pilstrom. Other members of the Board are Hsin-dar Lee and Peter Murray.


Kjell Gunna
Secretary General