By Rigas Dardalis/ dardalis@eurohoops.net
On Saturday FIBA held a press conference in order to assess the success of the World Cup, which by any account was the best ever organized by FIBA, however with secretary general Patrick Baumann present, the conversation went on to the investigation of Australia’s possible “tanking” the game against Angola.
After that game and the uproar which was created, fueled by a twitter comment made by Goran Dragic, FIBA announced that disciplinary proceedings against Australia were opened. According to FIBA bylaws Australia is facing a fine of up to 500.000 US dollars and/or suspension from international tournament play if found guilty. Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis also could face a fine of 100,000 US dollars or suspension if found to have willfully manipulated the result. The reaction of the Australian federation was a denial and also the will to cooperate in the proceedings.
Eurohoops posed the question about the ongoing investigation, asking also if a draw after the end of the group phase in order to determine the couplings for the rest of the competition could be a future solution and the answer of Baumann was the following, implying that what happened in Spain can be used as an example for the future: “As you know there are open proceedings for this case. The point is that something like this can’t happen again in the future. As for the draw, we are happy with our current format and we are not expecting to change it”.