Local international basketball referee Bernard Vassallo, right, was nominated by FIBA for further appointments in the European sphere following a positive season consisting of two full internationals and eight international European Cup games.

In fact, Vassallo will be in Poland as he is one of the selected referees by FIBA to officiate in the Eurobasket Women 2011 where the top 16 basketball countries have qualified and will not only fight to win this prestigious continental championship but will also tussle to win a place in the London 2012 Olympics.

This is the only opportunity to gain an Olympic spot and the eventual European champions will qualify directally for London whereas the teams that will classify from the second to the fifth place in the Eurobasket 2011 will win the chance to play qualification games with the runners-up from the other continents.

This year’s European Championship will commence today and is going to be held in the Polish cities of Lodz, Katowice and Bydgoszcz and the final will be played on 3 July.

Just afterwards, Vassallo was nominated for another notable continental championship, this time the European 2011 Under 20 Division A Championships that will be played in Serbia as from 6 July.

These championships will be hosted in the cities of Novi Sad, Zrenjanin and Belgrade and sixteen countries have qualified to take part with Russia aiming to defend the title won in the last edition whereas the last two classified countries will be relegated to Division B.