By Aris Barkas / info@eurohoops.net
Eurohoops has reported that the Israeli federation permitted to Hapoel Jerusalem to play both in the Eurocup and the Israeli league and has aquired the official English translation of the decision.
According to the text, FIBA confirms that it “will not sanction individual clubs, their leagues, or respective member federations simply by virtue of a club’s participation in the Euroleague”, and also that “importantly, FIBA has not compelled national federations, leagues, or clubs to end all ties with ECA’s competitions, nor has FIBA threatened or imposed sanctions on clubs participating in ECA’s competitions”.
Of course Eurocup is an ECA organized competition and it’s obvious that anyone can play in Eurocup without any kind of sanctions.
Here’s the full translation of the text: “Hapoel “Bank Yahav” Jerusalem has been registered for basketball games in Europe, organized by ULEB (Euroleague). This organization is a separate organization, and currently not connected to FIBA. FIBA is a European organization that organizes a framework of basketball games in the various countries, beneath the wings of FIBA. Since Hapoel Jerusalem was registered to play in Europe within the organizational framework of ULEB, FIBA wrote a letter to the Basketball Association, dated April 15, 2016, Annex 2 of the appeal, requesting the Association to present its position regarding the situation in which Hapoel Jerusalem, so it seems to FIBA, has undertaken to play within the framework of ULEB (Euroleague).
The Association’s legal representative is concerned that FIBA may exclude the Association from its European framework, should the Association allow Hapoel Jerusalem to play in the major league in Israel, while at the same time playing in Europe, within the framework of ULEB (Euroleague). This concern arose from oral discussions between representatives of FIBA and representatives of the Association. There is no indication and no sign pointing to the intention on the part of FIBA to exclude the Association from its framework.
According to the written material that we have, and that includes 2 types of documents – The first is part of the documents that were submitted to the European Association, with the pending issue of FIBA’s authority to threaten the Basketball Associations of an individual country to exclude it from the FIBA framework, should any teams playing within the associations of the country play in Europe within the framework of ULEB.
Section 48 of FIBA’s statement submitted on April 4, 2016 states: “Fiba will not sanction individual clubs, their leagues, or respective member federations simply by virtue of a club’s participation in the Euroleague”. Moreover. Section 49 of the statement states: “Importantly, FIBA has not compelled national federations, leagues, or clubs to end all ties with ECA’s competitions, nor has FIBA threatened or imposed sanctions on clubs participating in ECA’s competitions ”.
FIBA adheres to the principle that members of the basketball community should have the freedom to choose between the various competitors.
This also arises from the minutes of the meeting that took place in Europe on August 4, 2016 between ULEB, FIBA and representatives of the European parliament.
In light of the aforesaid it seems to us that it would be correct to register the appealing team within the framework of the games of the Basketball Association. The legal representative of the Association shall submit an English translation of this decision to FIBA and its legal representatives, in order to clarify to the Basketball Association, that their position is as we have stated above, taken from their legal reply within the framework of the proceedings that are pending in Europe.
This decision shall remain in force until a different decision is received, if requested.
This decision renders superfluous the need to discuss the question of applicability of the Israeli Antitrust Law to the situation that has evolved, as aforesaid, and legal questions that were presented before us“.