Basketball   Teams cry foul over late competition rules change |07 October 2022

With the men’s divisions one and two and women’s league reaching the final stretch, the National Basketball Technical Committee through the Seychelles Basketball Federation has decided to bring about changes in the competition rules and most teams are crying foul.

According to the competition format published in circular memo 3 of 2022 dated July 22, 2022 and addressed to all registered teams, the top four teams after the second round of the league phase in both the men’s divisions one and two would qualify for the playoffs to be played on a best-of-three format.

As for the four women’s teams, they were to play a three-round league and the top two would then qualify for the playoffs. The winners of the playoffs would then be declared the champions.

Following last weekend’s matches, all women’s teams are left with two matches each to play, while in the seven-team men’s division one league, four teams have just one match to play and the others have three before closing the two rounds of matches. In the 10-team men’s division two, teams have either three or four matches left to pay.

But instead of the competitions progressing as prescribed in the said circular, the National Basketball Technical Committee (NBTC) wrote to all team managers and representatives on Thursday September 29, 2022 to say that there was an error in the last circular no. 3 of July 22, 2022 regarding championship winners of each division of the national leagues (promotion and demotion) from the first and second divisions.

The most recent memo states that the team with the most points in each division will be declared national champions of their respective divisions. This means the playoffs have been scrapped, but this idea has not gone down well with many teams who were relying on making the playoffs to fight for the titles after a possible slow start to the championship since local basketball had been in the doldrums for some years.

The idea of a playoff has not been scrapped altogether since according to point 5 of the circular dated September 29, 2022, it will be played between the top four teams in each division after the national league.

But the reasons for having the playoffs after the champions have already been decided is not spelled out.

This decision has angered teams’ managers and representatives who have made known their opinion to the Seychelles Basketball Federation (SBF) executive committee.

Speaking to Sports NATION, Premium Cobras club president Roy Collie said he is unhappy with the decision.

“This is unfair. I am very unhappy with this decision and we will not accept it,” said Mr Collie.

As for second division team Anse Etoile manager Hervé Chang Yunn, he echoed Mr Collie’s comments adding: “This is unacceptable and we need to find a swift solution to move forward. The solution is to maintain what was initially agreed upon and communicated to all teams.”

Beau Vallon Heat vice-chairman Riard Balette said he is “yet to meet with the team’s management to discuss this issue,” adding that he still needs “to analyse the content of the circular”.

Jean-Paul Desaubin, PLS Hawks’ vice-chairman and player, said: “This is unbelievable. Couldn’t this be categorised as match-fixing? Definitely this one is out of the window.”

To try and pacify things, a meeting is being organised today for teams to take a vote on whether or not they want to accept the regulations change.

This will be done in the absence of chairman Jean-Guy Alphonse who has resigned. Mr Alphonse was re-elected into the post during the SBF extraordinary general meeting in early December 2020 at the Seychelles Trading Company (STC) conference room.

Meanwhile, the following are the results of last weekend’s matches:

Men division one:  Beau Vallon Heat beat Baya 73-54, PLS Hawks beat MBU Rockers 92-52

Men division two: AB Boys beat Praslin Boys 73-48, Praslin Boys beat Cascade Bullets 68-54, Mt Fleuri Ballerz beat PLS Suns 68-63

Ladies’ division: Anse Etoile Stars beat Mt Fleuri Ladies 66-47, B. Challenge beat HotShots 59-40.

Gerard Govinden