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FIBA rule benches overseas-based players
– Guyana faces CBC suspension
By Edison Jefford
The Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) is facing suspension from the Caribbean Basketball Confederation
Nigel Hinds
(CBC) after it supported the national team’s protest over the removal of its overseas-based players from its roster in Tortola.
Guyana is currently in the British Virgin Island competing at the Caribbean Championships with losses to the host, the United States Virgin Islands and Barbados (69-80). The Guyanese men nearly opted out of the competition over its roster disruption.
“Before the first game against BVI, the Guyanese players refused to play and my support was unwavering. However, after the Manager spoke with the players they agreed to play,” President of the GABF, Nigel Hinds said in a circular yesterday.
“Also I spoke with the Executive Director of CBC, Patrick Haynes and he indicated that Guyana would likely be suspended and our women team would not likely be allowed to participate in the 2014 CBC Championships,” Hinds informed.
The controversy surrounds the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) classification of Asia-based Guyanese forward, Gordon Klaiber, who plays in Japan, as a “Naturalised Guyanese” that forced the team to play him under the allowance of an ‘overseas-born’ player, leaving out United States of America-born point guard, Andre De Florimonte.
In addition, the six foot, seven inches forward, US-based, Tyler Persaud was also unable to play along with another US-based player, Richard Hall. The issue forced the Guyanese team down to ten players ahead of its super-important first game against the host.
“FIBA has broken their own rules by treating a Guyanese born player, namely Gordon Klaiber as a Naturalised Guyanese; this is totally in contravention of FIBA 3.21.a Rules for Eligibility,” the head of the GABF had said in an earlier email.
However, FIBA is contending that its rules of eligibility is very clear in that though the overseas-based players may have been born in Guyana, they must claim Guyanese nationality in the form of preferably a passport before the age of 16 years old.
Gordon Klaiber
The federation had indicated to FIBA that Klaiber was born in Guyana and the rule should not apply to him.
The Article 3.21.a of the FIBA Internal Regulations applies to players who have acquired legal nationality of a respective country by naturalisation or by any other means after having reached the age of 16 years old. The provision applies also to any player having the right to acquire a second nationality at birth but who did not lay claim to this right until after having reached the age of 16 years old.
Sport and Eligibility Senior Manager at FIBA, Ivanka Toteva asked the federation to provide any evidence to show that Klaiber claimed his Guyanese nationality before the restrictive age, which in all likelihood, the federation will be unable to prove since Klaiber was issued with a Guyanese passport only last week.
However, the federation maintains that FIBA interpretation of the rules is “improper”. “One of our players (De Florimonte) was forcibly removed from the court by his team-mates due to the mayhem caused by the FIBA ruling,” the federation said yesterday.
“We of the GABF have already protested and appealed the decision by FIBA to treat Klaiber as a ‘Naturalised Guyanese,” the local body continued, adding that “legal action against FIBA is very much on the table”.
According to the GABF, Guyana is playing in an environment where a “misguided FIBA ruling has disrupted team chemistry and the morale of the team”. The national federation is affiliated to CBC, which is allied with FIBA. Hinds believes that the FIBA decision represents a “miscarriage of justice”.
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