The Belize Basketball Federations had 30 days to file an appeal of
the decision handed down to it at FIBA. You will recall that the judge in that
case had ruled against Belize, finding that section 27 of the Belize Constitution,
the dual nationality clause raised doubt as to whether the basketball players
born in the USA of Belizean parentage, had to take a further step to show that
they were accepting Belizean nationality which they were entitled to at birth.
That’s what the BBF is challenging and to do that it has to go
all the way to the Court of Sport Arbitration in Lausanne, Switzerland. This
court is much bigger than FIBA – which is the governing body for basketball
– it is the world court for sports, settling all matters from the Olympics
to FIFA and its decision is final and binding. High stakes, but the Belize Basketball
Federation’s attorney Godfrey Smith says Belize must go all the way.
Godfrey Smith, BBF Attorney
“The appeal will really turn on that single issue of what is the correct
interpretation and application of section 27 of the Belize Constitution as it
relates to the basketball players in question. We want them to set aside what
the judge did. They can do that. They can set aside a decision, put in place
a new one, annul it, send it back. They have a broad scope of powers.
This difference with this appeal is that we get to select one of the arbitrators
or to nominate….sorry there is a list of about 150 different lawyers from
all over the world. In cases like this there will be three hearing our case.
We choose one, FIBA will choose one and then the court will choose the third
one.
So what we did was to go through the list of lawyers from the Commonwealth,
whether was Canada, Australia, England, and looked for one that we recognized
and we felt would certainly provide what I think was lacking the last time around,
mainly knowledge of our system of law and how it works.”
Jules Vasquez,
“So we expect to get a fair shake this time?”
Godfrey Smith,
“Yes, I expect to get a fair shake from three judges including one
hopefully from England, from our system of law.
The law is on our side and that view is shared by other lawyers as well
and that it is a decision that simply should not be left to stand.”
The filing of a notice of appeal was made today and Belize now has
ten days to file its arguments. FIBA will respond in twenty days and with the
back and forth thereafter, the hearing will probably be held in January.
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