Local international basketball referee, Bernard Vassallo, will be twice in action around Europe in the following days after he was nominated by FIBA to control a full international in England and a FIBA Eurochallenge game in France respectively.

In fact, Vassallo will be the main referee next Wednesday 7th January in the EIS Arena in Sheffield, for the full international valid for EuroBasket 2009 between Great Britain and Bosnia Herzegovina. The other referees will be Sergio Silva (Portugal) and Petr Kremer (Germany) whilst the FIBA commissioner will be John Goncalves.

England, Scotland and Wales are playing as an amalgamated team of Great Britain in view of London 2012 and are presently experiencing both an overhaul in their national team structure and a steady rise in the world rankings.

Vassallo's next appointment is on January 13 where he will travel to France to officiate the FIBA Eurochallenge Men encounter between hosts and group leaders Cholet and third placed Sumykhimprom (Ukraine).

This game is to be played at the Arena La Meilleraie in Cholet and the other referees will be Boris Schmidt (Germany) and Juan Redondo (Spain). The commissioner will be Peter Brys (Holland).

The other Maltese international referee, Gordon Barbara, will also be in action this week when he will officiate the Eurochallenge game between Olympic Fribourg and Slupsk (Poland) to be played in Switzerland. The other referees will be Stelian Banica (Romania) and Petros Papapetrou (Greece) whilst Alfred Drost (Germany) is the commissioner.