Making his way in the World Basketball Championship, Syrian Referee Wissam Zain…He made the best out of every role assigned to him… Be it a Player, coach or a referee.

Wissam Zain basketball the referee who has been known in the Syrian basketball halls since 2005, enters this year with a lot of ambition to represent Syria in the World championship which will be held in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia from August 25 to September 10.

During a talk with SANA New Agency ,Zain explained that his career began as a player in school tournaments, where he loved basketball and practiced it as an amateur, until when the Achrafieh Sahnaya Sports Club was founded, which he joined as a player and then a coach, until a year in which he discovered his arbitration tendencies.

Zain indicated that his entry into the field of arbitration came according to the data of the local tournaments that were held during that period, and after he went through many situations with the old referees, some of which ended with objection to the result, and some that ended with technical discussion based on experience in the game.All  these incidents prompted his insistence on entering this field. Hoping to change many misconceptions about arbitration, he supervised many matches up to this moment, including local and international ones, and led many matches in foreign tournaments in the neighboring countries of Syria, and many official matches at the level of the continent of Asia.

According to referee Zain the level and track of Syrian basketball is developing and  taking an upward movement , and every season is witnessing a development from the previous season, and what adds fun to the current season is the large public presence, and club administrations must work to exploit this presence in the best way possible .

He also added that the administration must take extra effort to improve the infrastructure of the game specifically The halls, everyone knows that they are closed stadiums with high-quality wooden floors, in addition to serving these stadiums with facilities, and paying attention to the technical aspect concerned with the presence of professional coaches and administrators who are able to develop the player technically, physically, mentally and psychologically, and then comes the material aspect that gives stability to the player, coach, referee, member of management and supervisor, which allows development and creativity to flourish in the basketball field.

When it comes to our participation in the Asian qualifiers for the Paris Olympics , Zain explained in case our national teams are prepared and equipped early on and effort is done to stabilize the administrative and technical field ,in that situation we will be able to achieve excellent results that can raise our team level and at the same time strive for the biggest dream, which is our presence in the Paris Olympics 2024.

At the end of the talk he wished that all who can bring improvement to Syrian basketball come together to bring the brilliance to   Syrian basketball through the entry of huge capitals and work to build bases because they are the basis for the development of the game in the coming years.

Leen Al-Salman