There is a 14-year-old boy in court. Despite its somewhat traditional length, it plays a power forward. Basketball, for him, is an intense passion, the embodiment of a dream. He practices it with friends and colleagues in the palace in Welcome. But today is a very special day: his greatest idol is watching him on the podium.

“He just sat, but the truth is I was touched by his very presence. I felt like I had to break it.” The idol is called Oscar Mulia, and he remains one of the greatest sacred beasts in River Plate basketball history. And this boy today is 64 years old, from 2012 to 2016 he was the president of the league, and since then he has been the president of the Uruguayan Basketball Association: the years have passed, but for Ricardo Fierro, the passion remains.

“Welcome will always be a feeling, although as president it stripped me of my prejudice,” he says in an interview with Tenfield.com. He adds, “Basketball gives me a completely different feeling from football, because it allows one to enjoy that feeling of belonging very particularly in relation to the club in which they have lived a good part of their days, and with which they meet all the people. Moreover, our environment is an environment in which we discuss Everything, but deep down, we have a good relationship because we are not here out of interest, but out of love for a sport that is also a passion.”

During the interview with Vairo, this will be the tone that will cover the conversation: that charm still felt by those of us who are in love with basketball. Charm comes at a particularly timely moment today, when Ricardo, as FUBB President, was responsible for announcing a strategic plan, as part of FIBA ​​PLUS, that would allow Uruguay – chosen by this program – to reach non-recurring heights of professionalism and transparency.

Large multinational companies work with planning of this type, but in sports at the union level it is more difficult to develop. What the program will make possible is to start from a mission, define what union it is for and where we are going, and once that is defined and our values ​​are clear, we move to the operational level, which needs to be done with the identification of specific goals and objectives lasting until 2023, when the Our state, Fairou explains. He concludes: “This will allow the generation of a single culture in which values, deadlines and goals are clear, in which there is a greater team spirit and a very clear roadmap that allows knowing what part each actor has to put in… to achieve these goals. If we achieve them, basketball will all evolve.” It will become a more popular sport, we will promote better and better basketball across the country, we will have ambitious goals in terms of quantity and quality, but also very specific budgets and managers to develop the program.”

The plan is generic and noteworthy because it is written with a healthy level of thought and planning, and highlights core values ​​such as legacy, team, respect, integrity and fair play. Which, in Fierro’s opinion, will have a positive impact on the team that will work in a more systematic way, and this was based on the appointment of Rubén Magnano, not as coach but as head of all national teams, because “he has a curriculum like few others in the world and because thanks to His talent and experience are able to spread his leadership widely.”

With the Training Center as a base to generate a place of belonging where players feel comfortable and can fraternize with the boys of the coaching divisions, and with the FIBA ​​provided under which the World Cup qualifiers have full keys to be played in every country, Vairo believes the chemistry between heavenly and, above all, athletes And fans, you will grow exponentially. “There is a unified team, Robin will teach at all levels, and although there are players whose teams will not give up in some cases, such as Granger, Bruno Fitipaldo will participate in all qualifying rounds and, beyond the will of the clubs, “dispose of the entire basketball players” , stands out.

But can you see a future in which local clubs see limited potential to hire stars, so that the competition is more equal, as in the NBA? “I don’t judge. We are still in transition towards more professionalism and we have improved our infrastructure, although we still have a long way to go. In addition to the fact that the clubs here are not a privilege, the biggest difference between our basketball, which is The impotence and dependent on the sponsors who put the money into it, and the American, is that the NBA is a business. Therefore, decisions are based on what is best for the prosperity of this business,” he asserts.

Before wrapping up, the former Welcome Chair will have time to explain how the reality of the pandemic has allowed FUBB’s requirements to be more flexible in the league’s dispute, so much so that antigen tests will now have another role and the teams will do so. He will face off across the board, reducing the sport’s extra advantages that the previous system – and contingency – had assumed.

When night falls, we return to that kid Molia saw play, the same kid who after many years went on to deify Oscar as Emmanuel Ginobili and Michael Jordan. “Do you know what’s going on?” -he says.- That the sport is professional does not mean that it does not involve the heart, because basketball is based, perhaps like no other, on love. The main barrier, but also the main driver, is passion. And my main responsibility as president It is his management.

Ricardo Fierro Margin me, gentlemen: the same against Muglia against troubled Uruguay for 2021.