Belize Basketball Federation Taking Appeal to UK
International Court of Arbitration for Sports
7 News Belize – The Belize Basketball Federation’s appeal before the Court of Arbitration for Sports will be heard next week Thursday in United Kingdom. The Federation is appealing last year’s decision of the FIBA Appeals Tribunal which ruled against the Belize National Men’s Senior Basketball Team – finding that 7 of the Belize-Americans on our silver winning team in the COCABA tournament were disqualified.
The reason given by FIBA is that the players received their nationality after they turned 16. But that’s what Belizean law provides for – and to make the case before the three judge panel – the Basketball Federation’s Attorney Godfrey Smith will be flying to Switzerland with Director of Immigration Gareth Murillo on Sunday. Smith explained the role of Murillo.
Godfrey Smith, Attorney for BBF: “The players who played, all of them got their citizenship before they were 16 and we believe the arguments are strong and that the case is clear. I think they probably want to question him on procedures and how things work and so on. For instance of the things that the FIBA Appeals Tribunal, Dr. Haas found, was that since dual citizenship was involved, the players at some point had to have elected to keep Belizean citizenship, some process at Immigration Department.
We said no there is no process. You keep Belizean citizenship, the only way to lose it is to renounce it and once you don’t renounce you keep it. There is no process of saying I apply to keep it. You can’t apply to keep what you already have. I think Mr. Murillo may questioned on that, whether there is any process and so on. And obviously he is going there to tell the truth, there is no such process known under our Immigration and Nationality Laws. If you don’t want to keep your citizenship you can renounce it yes and the players never did that. So I think they may ask him about that.”
Keith Swift: “What do you think our chances are?”
Godfrey Smith: “Well I have to say I think the chances are good because as I’ve said previously I think the case is a strong one. We believe we are correctly interpreting the Belize constitution.”
Under the rules of the Court of Arbitration for Sports, Belize gets to appoint one judge and so does FIBA. Belize has chosen queen’s counsel Michael Beloft. A decision should be delivered within a month. It is important to note that this is the court of last resort. Interestingly, since Belize’s appeal – FIBA has changed its rules and so the FIBA Appeals Tribunal is now the court of last resort for similar disputes.
