7 News Belize

Basketball Federation Takes Appeal to Lausanne
posted (December 14, 2009)

The Belize Basketball Federation will have its appeal heard by The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland. In November we told you that the Federation had taken a decision to take its appeal of an adverse decision by a FIBA tribunal to that court – which is the highest body for the settlement of disputes in all of sport. But the decision to go there is one thing and making all the steps in between is another.

The Federation and its attorney Godfrey Smith had to make written submissions, name an adjudicator and finally, pay fifteen Thousand Swiss francs to the court by last week Thursday the tenth of December. That’s a little over thirty thousand Belize dollars - and funding was provided by the Prime Minister’s Office and the Taiwanese Embassy Now the Federation awaits a date for a hearing which will be Lausanne, Switzerland.

As we’ve reported, the BBF will argue that the US born Belizean American players who represented Belize at the COCABA Championships in Cancun have been ruled ineligible by FIBA. The appeal seeks to establish that they were considered Belizeans at birth regardless of where they were born because they are the children of Belizean parents as assured in the Belize Constitution and Immigration law.

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7 News Belize