FIBA boss Patrick Baumann to lay down the law on Boomers’ ‘tanking’ allegations
Van: www.adelaidenow.com.au
Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis is waiting on FIBA’s decision on “tanking” allegations during the World Cup. Picture: Quique Garcia.
PATRICK Baumann will determine whether Australia’s Boomers are in breach of the Federation of International Basketball Association’s “code of conduct” following their loss to Angola at the World Cup.
FIBA’s secretary-general will make the ultimate determination after reviewing Basketball Australia’s detailed response to its accusation the Boomers “tanked” their last Group D match to African champion Angola.
Code of conduct breaches can mean fines or suspensions, with BA facing a fine of up to $500,000 and/or suspension from international tournament play if found guilty.
Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis also could face a fine of $100,000 or suspension if found to have wilfully manipulated the result.
That is despite the loss to Angola not actually determining final group placings but Slovenia’s loss to Lithuania changing the finishing order.
FIBA’s regulations ban “fixing or contriving in any way or otherwise improperly influencing, or being a party to fix or contrive in any way or otherwise improperly influence, the result, progress, outcome, conduct or any other aspect of a competition of FIBA”.
The Boomers lost their round-of-16 game 64-65 to Turkey, a result which left them finishing in the 9-12 bracket and sure to impact on their funding under the Australian Sports Commission’s Winning Edge system.
FIBA’s statement it intended to investigate Australia’s performance included the sentence: “It is widely suspected that Australia lost that game in order to avoid having to face the reigning world champions USA until the semi-finals.”
Losing to Angola did not guarantee that at all, making even the premise of the investigation erroneous.
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