- 07
- May
- 2025
Visionary, rigorous, uncompromising: the president of the Lebanese Basketball Federation has transformed a crisis-ridden institution into a regional model. Portrait of an inflexible builder, re-elected in 2024 for a third term, and more determined than ever to put Lebanon on the world basketball map.
When Akram Halabi was elected head of the Lebanese Basketball Federation in 2018, no one yet suspected that Lebanon was about to go through one of the worst decades in its contemporary history.
A President in the Storm
Akram Halabi did not imagine that the term he was beginning would turn into a marathon of crises. In October 2019, an unprecedented economic crisis hits Lebanon head-on. The country plunges into chaos. The financial collapse is followed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Beirut port explosion in 2020, the Gaza war at the end of 2023, then the escalation between Israel and Hezbollah. It’s hard to imagine a more unfavorable context. Against all odds, Halabi has each time found the remedies, the solutions, the right decisions.
The Reconstruction Project
Drawing on his experience in business, he quickly sets up a financial recovery system to prevent Lebanese basketball from sinking. When he inherits the position, the federation is suffocated by debts, inherited from mismanagement, notably during the organization of the Asia Cup. He sets about repaying them, restructures and professionalizes. Halabi, a visionary and meticulous in the smallest details, lands the biggest broadcast contract in the history of Lebanese sports, multiplies academies for coaches and referees, and lays the foundations for a new federation headquarters in Jounieh, whose first stone has already been laid.
Results on All Courts
Lebanon becomes runner-up in Asia in 2022, qualifies for the 2023 FIBA World Cup and wins the Arab Cup in Dubai with a men's team at the top of its game. Under his leadership, the women’s teams shine in zone 1, the historic clubs (Riyadi, La Sagesse) regain their former glory, and youth teams – U10, U12, U14 – experience unprecedented growth. Training sessions are regularly organized for referees and coaches, as part of a dynamic of overall structuring of Lebanese basketball.
One Man, One Vision
And above all, Halabi is elected vice-president of the Asian Federation. A major regional recognition for someone who now intends to conquer the continent, provided that ambitions remain high: “Qualifying for the Asia Cup is not an end in itself. The goal is the title,” he declares, calling for solid preparations, overseas training camps and targeted recruitment of naturalized players.
Re-elected unanimously last December, he promises to continue the work. He advocates collective leadership, but remains the guarantor of a clear line: preserve the neutrality of sports, resist political interference and refuse the compromises that cause harm.
Against Interference, for Ethics
He does not hesitate to denounce partisan maneuvers, power games and attempts at instrumentalization that plague Lebanese sport. Without mincing his words, he lambasts the illegal interventions of certain officials from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and accuses political parties of wanting to take back control of sports bodies for electoral purposes.
But at 57 years old, the man does not let himself be intimidated. “We have achieved a lot, but the best is yet to come.” The phrase might seem cliché. But from him, it sounds like a promise. And a threat. That of a president who, even in the storm, stays the course.
In a country where presidents change faster than the seasons, Halabi embodies stability and continuity. Calm, determined, upright and turned toward the future.
In a Lebanon often tossed between passions and divisions, Akram Halabi has accomplished the feat of uniting an entire people… around an orange ball.
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