UNDER-20 U-TURN FOR GB TEAMS

By Mark Woods
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Updated: October 18, 2018

The British Basketball Federation has declared they will field Great Britain teams at all age groups in 2018-19.

The U-turn backtracks on the home nations’ highly-criticised plan to axe the GB Under-20 teams which came under fire from both senior internationalists and elsewhere in the sport.

A statement, published online, said: “The British Basketball Federation (BBF) has today made a commitment to register GB teams in all age groups for international competitions during 2018/19 season.

“The BBF runs the GB basketball teams under a federated model comprised of the Home Country Associations (HCAs) of England, Scotland and Wales.”

It remains unclear how the additional spend will be funded.

The new regime at the BBF has been forced into a second embarrassing climbdown after it was forced to abandon plans to install Sir Rodney Walker onto its revamped board.

MVP revealed that Walker’s position as chair of the British Basketball League explicitly prohibited him from simultaneously serving as a director of the federation, under Section 2.2 of the BBL license, a violation that could ultimately have led to the license being withdrawn.

It is understood that new BBF chair Maurice Watkins has now moved to nullify plans for Walker’s board appointment.

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that the BBF’s official address has been re-registered to Basketball England’s head office in Manchester in the clearest signal yet that England is set to take a lead role in governing much of the sport, including the Great Britain programme.

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