FIBA’s Disciplinary Panel to decide sanctions given AUS-PHL incident

 

 

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA (4 July 2018)–A four-person Disciplinary Panel will assess the possible sanctions to be meted out by the Fédération Internationale de Basketball (FIBA) on both the Philippines and Australia after their brawl last Monday.

The FIBA Disciplinary Panel is among the “judicial bodies” of the federation. Established under Article 38 of the FIBA General Statutes (or the federation’s constitution), the Panel “adjudicates at a world level on sanctions for a wide variety of matters outlined in the General Statutes or the FIBA Internal Regulations, as well as any other matter referred to it by the FIBA Secretary General.”

What the Disciplinary Panel assesses are alleged ethics violations, violations of the Official Basketball Rules, violations of the FIBA Internal Regulations, and anti-doping violations.

Eleonora Rangelova of Bulgaria (photo take from person's LinkedIn account)

Eleonora Rangelova of Bulgaria (photo take from Rangelova’s LinkedIn account)

Ms. Eleonora Rangelova of Bulgaria (FIBA Legal Commission – Deputy Chair), Atty. Tomas Gonzalez Cueto of Spain (FIBA Legal Commission Member), Mr. Lubomir Kotleba of Slovenia (FIBA Technical Commission – Deputy Chair) and Atty. Olivier Ducrey of Switzerland (External Attorney) comprise the FIBA Disciplinary Panel for “disciplinary matters – general.”

(FIBA’s Disciplinary Panel also has two other members who are specifically handling anti-doping violations: Drs. Pete Harcourt of Australia and Souheil Sayegh of Switzerland. Harcourt and Sayegh are chair and deputy chair of FIBA’s Medical Commission, respectively.)

The six Disciplinary Panel members were appointed for a period of 2014-2019 by FIBA’s secretary general.

Rangelova has been secretary-general of the Bulgarian Basketball Federation since August 2002. This former basketball player for nearly 13 years earned two master’s degrees, from Sofia University in Bulgaria and from the University of Poitiers in France.

Rangelova’s federation, from October 27-30, 2016, hosted a conference on fan violence in basketball games together with a European Union-organized project called Fans Against Violence.

Tomas Gonzalez Cueto of Spain (taken from his Twitter account)

Tomas Gonzalez Cueto of Spain (taken from his Twitter account)

Gonzalez is a partner of the Spanish law firm GC Legal. This commercial lawyer is also first vice president of the Spanish Court of Sports Arbitration and of the Spanish Arbitration Commission of the Spanish Olympic Committee.

Former basketball player and referee Kotleba chairs FIBA’s Rule Advisory Group and is full-time with the federation since 1989. He has officiated more than 4,000 games including matches during the Olympic Games and the old FIBA World Championships. The 72-year-old Kotleba was also a former federation of his country’s basketball federation, both as Slovakia and under the old Czechoslovakia.

Ducrey is part of the renowned international law firm Baker McKenzie, included in the commercial/corporate and real estate groups of Baker McKenzie’s Geneva office. Ducrey is a board member of the Swiss Sports law Association.

Ducrey also has litigation experience for sports federations, clubs and platers. He has represented clients in commercial disputes in the courts of Geneva and in tribunals such as the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Tribunal Arbitral du Sport), and the arbitral tribunals of FIBA and FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association).

Former referee Lubomir Kotleba of Slovenia (photo taken from http://old.referee.pl/opinions/382-lubo-kotleba-letter-to-referee-pl-message-to-all-referees)

Former referee Lubomir Kotleba of Slovenia (photo taken from http://old.referee.pl/opinions/382-lubo-kotleba-letter-to-referee-pl-message-to-all-referees)

FIBA’s Disciplinary Panel is one of four panels under the federation, the other panels being ethics, appeals and nominations.

In principle, FIBA’s Disciplinary Panel gives all persons who are the subject of proceedings “the right to be heard, and may be assisted by legal representative of their choice and/or a representative of the respective national member federation”. This right is stipulated in Article 1-175 of FIBA’s Internal Regulations.

Article 1-173 of the Internal Regulations also stipulate that Disciplinary Panel members “for a particular hearing shall be of neutral nationality.” That being said, Rangelova, Gonzalez, Kotleba and Ducrey fit into this provision.

Art. 1-155 of FIBA’s Internal Regulations also stipulate that hearings “may be conducted in writing or orally. The competent FIBA body is free to decide in which manner to conduct the hearing.” The July 3 Tweet of FIBA headquarters did not mention the manner in which the hearing will be conducted.

And when contending parties disagree with the decision/s of the Disciplinary Panel, appeals may be lodged with the FIBA

Atty. Olivier Ducrey of Switzerland (photo taken from Ducrey's profile at the Baker McKenzie website, https://www.bakermckenzie.com/en/people/d/ducrey-olivier)

Atty. Olivier Ducrey of Switzerland (photo taken from Ducrey’s profile at the Baker McKenzie website, https://www.bakermckenzie.com/en/people/d/ducrey-olivier)

Appeals’ Panel (as stipulated in articles 1-167 and 1-181 of FIBA’s Internal Regulations).

This current Appeals Panel is comprised of 11 members and, like the Disciplinary Panel, were appointed for the 2014-2019 term. Chair of the Appeals panel is Pierre Collomb (France), while Michael Gerlinger (Germany) is deputy chair. Members are from Switzerland, another one from Germant, Denmark, Chinese-Taipei, Poland, Greece, Kenya, Slovenia and Switzerland.

FIBA’s Appeals Panel “hears and rules on appeals filed by an affected party against decisions of FIBA including its organs and disciplinary bodies, unless such appeal is the competence of an Appeals’ Panel of a FIBA Zone or expressly excluded in the FIBA General Statutes or Internal Regulations.”

However, decisions of referees or table officials during or after official games are not part of the jurisdiction of the Appeals Panel.

The Disciplinary and Appeals Panels of FIBA will have the July 2 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers match between Australia and the Philippines as its latest case. The match ended in an unfortunate brawl, in 13 player ejections (nine from the Philippines and four from Australia), and Australia winning 89-56 when only one Philippine player was left near the end of the third quarter.

Both officials of Basketball Australia and the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) and the coaches and players of both countries have publicly apologized for the melee last Monday.

In a Tuesday night dinner with the entire Philippine team, SBP Official Butch Antonio could only speculate what the sanctions will be for both countries. These sanctions are provided for in FIBA’s Internal Regulations, particularly in Book 1 (“General Provisions”). [see related story]

Maraming kuro-kuro. Maraming pinag-uusapan [There are many talks and speculations] — possible sanctions . . .  but I guess what’s best to do now is to wait for the decisions made by FIBA based on what they know. And from whatever they come up with, we can also act accordingly,” Antonio said, quoting a media report.

“If we have to appeal or agree to stuff that they have meted on the team, the federation, a player or an official, we’ll take it from there,” Antonio added.

 

 

Related story: Sanctions to PHL, AUS to be based on FIBA’s Internal Regulations

 

 

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About Jeremaiah Opiniano