North Macedonia’s Basketball Federation Reverts to ‘Macedonian’ Name

The Basketball Federation of North Macedonia has announced the initiation of procedures to change its official name, reintroducing the term ‘Macedonian’ into its title. Specifically, according to a recent statement from the federation, the new president of the federation in North Macedonia, Tome Glavchev, proposed renaming the federation either as the ‘Macedonian Basketball Federation’ or the ‘National Basketball Federation’ during a recent meeting of the Executive Board. The proposal was met with positive feedback from board members, who unanimously agreed to proceed with changing the name to ‘Macedonian Basketball Federation,’ raising questions about compliance with the Prespa Agreement terms. The Basketball Federation was one of the first sports federations in the country to adapt to the Prespa Agreement, abandoning the previous name ‘Macedonian Basketball Federation’ and adopting the official name ‘Basketball Federation of North Macedonia.’ This change occurred under the presidency of Pero Andic, one of the most renowned basketball players in the country’s history, who served as federation president in prior years. In April 2025, Andic was replaced by Tome Glavchev, who is now pushing for the reinstatement of the federation’s former name. It is worth noting that several other sports federations in the country, such as the ‘Macedonian Football Federation’ and the ‘Handball Federation of Macedonia,’ never changed their names after the Prespa Agreement and continue to use the term ‘Macedonia’ without the geographic qualifier ‘North’.