On Saturday 23th, former players Arvydas Sabonis and Aleksandar Djordjevic opened the envelope at 19:36 h. that contained the name of the next host of the 2014 World Championship in the presence of the President of FIBA, Bob Elphinston, and its Secretary General, Patrick Baumann, at a ceremony held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva. Two hours earlier the members of the Central Committee, who previously attended the final presentations of Italy, Spain and China, met to vote. None of the three candidates won more than one vote than half of the total. Therefore, as stipulated, China, the bid that obtained less votes, was eliminated. On the recommendation of FIBA, both the Presidents of Spanish and Chinese bids decided not to vote as a gesture towards Italy. In the second round, Spain reached the victory by casting 11 votes of a total of 19. Following the announcement of the winning country, Patrick Baumann acknowledged the efforts of the three candidates and invited José Luis Sáez, to stand at the podium. The head of the FEB received the congratulations of Elphinston and Baumann, who gave him a miniature reproduction of the Naismith Trophy, symbolizing the choice of Spain as the host of the 2014 FIBA World Championship. "It's very difficult to talk right now," admitted Sáez, whose first words were for Italy and China. "They are two great countries and two major federations, and I want them to be a part of this project" he said. Sáez also said that the members of FIBA that "we will not be disappointed. We wanted to achieve progress and we did because this is not a victory for Spain, is a victory for basketball”. José Luis Sáez also had words of appreciation for the employees of the FEB, "the real architects of the project,who kept looking for new ideas to improve our bid". "I also want to show my appreciation to the Government, the autonomous communities and all the cities of this project. Without their support this would not have been possible. We have worked as a team”, he said. The head of the FEB also sent a message his family, "who has been living without me in the past year". Finally, Sáez addressed those attending the ceremony in English by saying "we'll see you in Spain."