The Lebanon Cedars will not be competing in the Fiba Asia Men’s Championship in Manila on Aug. 1 after the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) upheld its original decision to suspend the Lebanese Basketball Federation (LBF) for “serious infringement of the FIBA General Statutes and all principles under which the Olympic sports movement is founded.”
This recent development will be a big boost for the Smart Gilas Pilipinas as it aims to capture one of the three slots to the Fiba World Cup in Spain next year that are at stake in this upcoming Asian tournament. Lebanon was considered to be one of the favorites as it had qualified in the last three World Championships.
According to a report that was posted on the Daily Star of Lebanon, the LBF was given a deadline to internally resolve its conflicts, but was unable to do so, thus forcing Fiba to reinforce its decision to suspend the organization, reportedly for four years. Fiba mandated that the LBF and several local clubs sign a memorandum of agreement with conditions that included the resumption of the local professional league and for the legal cases to be settled outside of the court of law.
“At the outset, we wish to reiterate that the suspension of your federation has not been a decision taken hastily by FIBA. It was indeed approved by the FIBA central board due to events of the utmost gravity whereby one club has been able, with external political support, to disrupt entirely the smooth running of the Lebanese national championship,” said the Fiba statement. “The FIBA central board was therefore of the firm belief that the Lebanese basketball family must now assume the consequences of its organizational deficiencies and actions. For as long as key governance principles are not implemented in the statutes of your federation and in the latter’s policies and management, and approved/agreed to by all stakeholders it shall not be readmitted with full rights with FIBA and be allowed to participate in the most important international basketball competitions.”
“Despite your attempts and those of the FIBA ASIA secretary-general within the past few days to find solutions to these issues, the situation remains highly unstable and the governance issues affecting basketball in Lebanon are much deeper and much more serious than the mere absence of proper appeal and disciplinary regulations within your statutes. Accordingly we are regretfully not in a position to reconsider our decision of July 11, 2013, and the Lebanese Basketball Federation remains suspended,” the statement added.