The fifth FIBA Game Officials Licensing (GOL) cycle for the period 2025-27 will get underway on 15 October 2024, when registration for referee and commissioner candidates opens.

The FIBA Referee Operations, in cooperation with the FIBA Regional Offices, are in the final preparation stage for the GOL 2025-27. As usual, National Federation members will receive instructions and a comprehensive documentation package in mid-October and will begin the process of registering their best qualified candidates.

The GOL2025-27 timeline will follow exactly the same principles of the previous cycle. The process will be divided into 3 phases:

After the final phase, FIBA will publish the list of licensed Game Officials by June 15, 2025. The new Licensed Period 2025-2027 will start on 1 September 2025.

Carl Jungebrand, FIBA Head of Refereeing said: "It has been a very busy and successful year so far. And now we are gearing up for one of our biggest projects off the court – Game Officials Licensing. We work closely with the regional offices and national federations, which allows for regular inventory and quality control of game officials and provides new opportunities for up-and-coming referees and national federations. It is also beneficial for the candidates to refresh their theoretical knowledge of the rules and the officiating techniques, as well as conduct a physical and medical check for referees”.

"As before, various documents and training materials will be available to candidates on the FIBA website and the iRef App. We invite candidates to access the material as early as October, when it will be published, and to prepare themselves in advance for the testing phase in January 2025".

Successful referee candidates are awarded FIBA licenses in the categories of Black, Green and White, which entitle referees to officiate international games for women, men and juniors on global, continental, regional and sub-regional levels. There are no categories for commissioner licenses.

The GOL system has been successfully implemented for four (4) periods already: 2017-2019, 2019-2021, 2021-2023 and 2023-2025 and has yielded around 800 international referees and 300 commissioners in each cycle.

For more information please visit Game Official - FIBA.basketball or get in touch with FIBA Referee Operations at GOL@fiba.basketball.

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Read more: Monday Special Webinar – October 7 – Game Officials Licensing 2025-2027