FIBA eligibility rules stay

Jan Travilla, seen here going for a reverse layup during a title game in a local league last month at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium, will suit up for the CNMI Women’s National Team that will play in next month’s Micronesian Games in Yap. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The Micronesian Games Council slammed the door on teams, including the CNMI, appealing to forego the implementation of the FIBA eligibility rules in next month’s Micronesian Games in Yap.

Council president Bill Keldermans, in an email message sent to sports association heads of the CNMI, Guam, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, and Kiribati, said he cannot change the decision made by his group.

“It is very hard for me to write this but I must. First let me say that there are no exemptions and we must follow the FIBA regulations. The Games Council made the decision and I cannot reverse their choice. The timing was not good, but all of your representatives on the Council knew about this and should have informed you long ago,” Keldermans stated in the letter.

The FIBA eligibility rules for Micro Games say that for a basketball player to compete in the quadrennial event, he or she must be a citizen and passport holder of the country he or she is representing. In the CNMI’s case, a player should be a U.S. citizen and must be born here or a U.S. citizen and at least has a grandparent born here. In the old eligibility rules, non-U.S. citizens were allowed to compete for the CNMI provided they meet the seven-year residency, while a three-year residency was implemented for Micronesian athletes living here.

Mariana Islands Basketball Federation official Elias Rangamar expressed his disappointment on the new rules during the NMSA meeting early this month and said the decision made a few months before the Micro Games kicks off is unfair to the players who have been training with the team since Day 1 only to find out they will not be able to make the trip to Yap. He requested that Northern Marianas Sports Association, on behalf of MIBF, write a letter to the Council to appeal the contested eligibility rules. NMSA head Michael White, who missed the Council meeting when it voted in favor of the FIBA rules, did write a letter to the decision-makers, while Chuuk and Kosrae followed suit, as they have the same dilemma.

“I sent an email message requesting postponement of the applicability of FIBA eligibility rules until the 2022 Micro Games,” White told Saipan Tribune.

However, the Council stood by its earlier decision.

“The Council thought that the benefits of following FIBA regulations for all of us overruled any problem that we might have in the short term. Micro Games will now be used as a qualifying tournament for further FIBA events and will give our athletes a chance to participate at higher levels of international competition,” Keldermans said.

“I am sorry if this has caused some problems, but the Council thought that it was a necessary step that must be taken. A vast majority of the athletes have been registered under the FIBA eligibility rules, over 95 percent,” he added.

With this development, Rangamar said MIBF will be consulting with a lawyer to find out the legal actions that must be taken against the Council.

“We want to get something out of the damage they have done to the team, to the players, who have been working hard in practice only to be told they can’t make it to the Games. They raised funds for the trip to Yap and other made sacrifices. Until now, they could not get over with the fact that they will not be able to play in the Micro Games,” Rangamar said in a telephone interview with Saipan Tribune yesterday.

Only basketball is following the eligibility rules of an international federation for the Micro Games that will run from July 15 to 27.

With the Council sticking to the FIBA eligibility rules, the CNMI’s men’s team only has 11 players and could be down to nine, as the squad is still waiting for the accreditation of two players (Kelvin Fitial and Thomas Kautz), who replaced Douglas Schmidt and N-Nes Siech (out due to the FIBA rules). Fitial and Kautz have registered with FIBA, but were added into the roster past the June 15 deadline of the Micro Games accreditation committee.

Rangamar is hoping the two players get consideration, as the new eligibility rules were announced months after MIBF had already named the members of the national team.