NAN-S-7
Basketball
By Babatunde Ogunrinde
Lagos, Jan. 10, 2017 (NAN) The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) on Wednesday cleared players who were interested in participating in its leagues and others than the DStv Basketball Men’s League to do so.
A board member of the NBBF, Olumide Oyedeji, made the disclosure to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos while answering questions on the fate of banned players in the 2016 season.
Oyedeji, who is a member of the FIBA World Players’ Commission, said the affected players would have to write a letter of intention to the NBBF.
He explained that with the rumours making the round that Africa Basketball League (ABL) would start in the first week of February, the NBBF needed to be notified by players of their participation in its competitions.
“As a federation, we cannot force anybody to participate in any competition or stop them from participating in the ABL.
“We did not directly or indirectly ban any player who participated in the ABL as being insinuated by members of the public.
“What happened was very simple, before a player can move from one club to another; there is the need for a clearance from his former employer and the home federation.
“In the case of ABL, the league was not recognised by FIBA Africa.
“The non-recognition made it difficult for some players who wanted to represent other clubs at the FIBA Zone 3 elimination series and the FIBA Africa men’s club championship to get clearance.’’
Oyedeji said the ABL could not issue any International Transfer Certificate (ITC) which made it impossible for the players that took part in the league to change clubs even in the West African sub-region.
“Since the ABL did not operate under NBBF or any other FIBA recognised federation, it was impossible for the NBBF to issue transfer certificates to the players.
“For NBBF to reabsorb the players, they must write a letter , not necessarily a letter of apology but that of intention to the NBBF, stating that they are ready to play in its domestic leagues.
“For those players who wish to participate in our local leagues or get an ITC from NBBF, we will have to disregard their stints with ABL.
“We will assume that such player(s) sat out for one year which is still within the FIBA transfer regulations.’’ (NAN)
BAO/PDE
=======
(Editing by Peter Ejiofor)