Basketball - Champions to be decided through playoffs |10 October 2022

In the end, logical reasoning won.

On Friday, most representatives of basketball teams present for an urgent meeting at Victoria Gymnasium voted for the champions to be decided through a playoff as was originally communicated.

The reason for the meeting was because theNational Basketball Technical Committee through the Seychelles Basketball Federation had decided to bring about changes in the competition rules with most teams having just one, two or three matches left to play. As a result, most teams cried foul.

The competition format was originally published in circular memo 3 dated July 22, 2022 and addressed to all registered teams. It said that 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.

Butthe 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 memo dated September 29, 2022 stated that the team with the most points in each division will be declared national champions of their respective divisions. This idea did not go 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.

After all teams had put forward their concerns, a vote was needed to decide the next step to be taken. In the end, most teams opted to stick to the first option.

Gerard Govinden