By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Telekom Baskets Bonn terminated the contract of guard Joshiko Saibou due to the player breaking health protocols by participating in a demonstration against COVID-19 measures in Berlin last weekend.
“The German clubs are currently working meticulously on hygiene concepts for the fans next season and for special health and safety guidelines,” Bonn managing director Wolfgang Wiedlich said in a statement. “Therefore, we can’t be responsible for a permanent risk of infection, which the player Saibou represents to his teammates and to other BBL teams.”
Bonn says that Saibou repeatedly expressed his stance on the coronavirus pandemic on his social media. According to AFP, Saibou had been shown to support conspiracy theories around COVID-19 with various posts on his social media while criticizing the German Government’s measures for the crisis.
The German Basketball Federation won’t be taking any action against Saibou. “We, as a federation distance ourselves from it, but we also accept that Joshiko Saibou has a difference of opinion”, Federation president Ingo Weiss told AFP.