British Basketball Confirm GB U20s Will Compete This Summer, Will Not Make Formal Appeal - Hoopsfix.com

British Basketball Confirm GB U20s Will Compete This Summer, Will Not Make Formal Appeal

British Basketball has confirmed that the Great Britain Under-20s programmes will go ahead this summer, despite recent funding cuts.

There has been much speculation that after UK Sport’s decision to withdraw the federation’s funding the Under-20s teams may cease to exist, but after careful consideration British Basketball has prioritised the youth teams with a focus on Tokyo 2020.

It will be a historic year for the under-20 men as they achieved their best ever result last July, when they reached the final of their Division-B Championship, which also secured promotion to Division-A.

This July, they will travel to Crete, Greece where they will play in Group A, alongside Greece, Latvia, Lithuania and Hungary.

GB under-20 women’s side will face nine tough opponents when they travel to Sofia, Bulgaria in July for their Division-B Championship action against Bosnia, Hungary, Romania, Israel, Norway, Bulgaria, Germany, Portugal and Lithuania.

“We have been faced with making difficult decisions because the funding decision has made our situation challenging,” said Performance Chairman, Roger Moreland.

“As well as giving the senior teams the chance to qualify for next year’s EuroBasket finals, it is equally important to give the next generation more international experience and that is why the case for the under-20 teams has been prioritised above off court issues.”

After UK Sport withdrew all funding from British Basketball in February, representations were made to the UK Sport Board in March, but the funding decision was reaffirmed. The only recourse left open to British Basketball was to make a formal appeal to the Sports Dispute Resolution Panel (SDRP). That appeal would be based on the technicalities of the process of how British Basketball’s case was assessed and would be unlikely to result in a reversal of the decision.

Having taken legal advice, it became clear that whilst there may be a case for an appeal, the costs associated with making that case successfully had to be considered alongside other matters, such as delivering on the commitment made to enter national teams into European Championships. As a result of that process, British Basketball has decided that it will not submit an appeal to the SDRP against the UK Sport decision to withdraw funding.

A debate has taken place over the last few weeks in the media. That debate has raised many issues and the case for basketball and other team sports has been strongly made.

“It has been acknowledged that basketball and other team sports have a crucial role to play at grass roots level. Their profile means they also have an important role to play in providing opportunities for people from diverse communities to reach their potential and excel” said Moreland.

H”It is, therefore, not the winning of an appeal that is important; it is the securing of a lasting solution to the team sport issue from grass roots to international level that would represent the most significant change. That has been done elsewhere in the world and it can be done in Great Britain.

“It will take leadership at a political level to achieve this. Only then will we truly be providing inspiration for all our young people no matter what their background is.”

Image Credit: GB Basketball

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