The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) has sanctioned the National Basketball Federation of TT (NBFTT) for failing to attend the 3x3 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers and for non-payment of AmeriCup 3x3 registration fees.
A NBFTT statement on Wednesday said, “Following the NBFTT’s failure to attend the 3x3 FIBA World Cup qualifiers and pay the AmeriCup 3x3 Basketball registration fees, the NBFTT has been sanctioned and FIBA has asked the NBFTT to explain what happened.”
Without confirming if the NBFTT did respond to FIBA, the statement added that “The NBFTT is awaiting FIBA's response. However, this situation is only with regard to 3x3 basketball programme.”
TT’s withdrawal now risks their eligibility to participate in the next edition of the FIBA 3x3 World Cup.
The confirmation of FIBA’s sanction was included in Wednesday’s emailed press release, titled Recognition of TT Basketballers 2023 for TT Olympic Committee Awards. The statement went on to nominate Chris Jaydond Roberts, 17, and Maya Raymond, 15, for the TTOC’s junior awards.
It also confirmed that Akheel “Smally” Boyd, 24, and Carissa Ramdial, 17, were nominated in the senior category.
However, when Newsday contacted NBFTT general secretary Clayton Blackman to get more information on FIBA’s sanction, he claimed there was no such document from the federation.
Newsday then reached out to NBFTT vice president of marketing and communication Alexis Browne, who confirmed the release as true.
Despite Browne’s confirmation, he did not want to go into additional details on FIBA’s sanctioning of NBFTT. Calls to NBFTT president Jason Hills went unanswered.
However, Newsday obtained a copy of an October 23 FIBA document that was sent to Hills, entitled Opening of Disciplinary Proceedings – FIBA DO 3x3 12-23.
It said, “FIBA hereby opens disciplinary proceedings against the NBFTT for a potential breach of the FIBA Internal Regulations (FIBA IR). Specifically, we refer to the withdrawal of the TT men’s national team from the FIBA 3x3 World Cup Qualifier scheduled to take place on 6 and 7 May 2023 in Israel.”
FIBA also outlined a trail of “facts” explaining why the NBFTT was being sanctioned and the potential penalties.
It said, “On April 20, 2023, the NBFTT inquired to FIBA about the possibility to participate in the FIBA 3x3 AmeriCup 2023 despite having missed both the original and the granted two-week extended deadline for registration of participation.
“On the same day, FIBA informed the NBFTT that their participation in the FIBA 3x3 AmeriCup 2023 would not be possible due to the deadlines having already passed and the competition format having already been set.”
FIBA requested “final written confirmation” of the team’s participation to the FIBA 3x3 World Cup Qualifier. The team was registered by the NBFTT within the registration period, and payment of the registration fee was also completed on time.
FIBA dubbed TT’s registration “binding” and that “such information was explicitly brought to the attention of NBFTT during the registratio
