FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, and Adecco SA, the world leading company in HR services, announced today that they have entered into a partnership agreement for the period 2004 –2007.

Adecco will be present for the first time at the FIBA Asian Championship for Women, the Olympic Qualifier for Asia, which tips off tomorrow in Sendai, Japan.

The partnership includes a program for professional athletes who will be trained and assisted to achieve success in their professional life after their sports career has ended. Further details of the co-operation
and the program will be released at a press conference at FIBA’s headquarters in February.

Patrick Baumann, FIBA’s Secretary General stated, ‘We are delighted about the new partnership and the opportunities it offers our athletes to make the transition from a professional sporting career into the wider workplace.

We look forward to working with the world’s most renowned company in the field of Employment Services’ Jérôme Caille, Adecco’s CEO noted ‘With this new partnership, Adecco once again demonstrates not only its commitment to helping people succeed in their professional life, but also its involvement in the world of sports. Basketball is one of the world’s most popular sports and together with FIBA we aim to use this partnership to demonstrate the growing importance of lifelong career management for
everyone.’

FIBA is the world governing body for basketball with 212 associated member countries in all 5 continents and an estimated 400 million players around the world.

Adecco SA is the worldwide Human Resources Services leader with a network of 28,000 employees and 6,000 offices in 68 territories around the world. Each year, more than 3 million people find a job through Adecco, helping 250,000 companies achieve their business goals.

Adecco has become FIBA’s fifth global partner after, Champion, Molten, Mondo and Zepter.

For further information contact:
Florian Wanninger
Head of Communications
Tel.: +41-22-54 500 00
Fax: +41-22-54 500 99
email: communications@fiba.com
web: www.fiba.com