SLG
Born Again..........and still Scottish!
Joined: 16 Sep 2005
Posts: 5515
Location: Dùn Eideann
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 Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 10:43 am Post subject: Scottish basketball faces GB day |
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Anyone care about the national Basketball team? The journalist seems to use this to have a cheap go at the SFA for not complying with the Great British fitba team for the Olympics.
| Quote: | Scottish basketball faces GB day
DOUG GILLON
SCOTTISH basketball is facing some of the biggest challenges and changes in its history.
The decision to campaign a Great Britain team for the 2012 London Olympics, when the UK would have no host exemption from qualifying, will raise the game's profile higher than ever before, presenting commercial and TV opportunities.
Crucially, the gestation of this British team has lacked any of the pains which racked football, as the SFA resisted all moves to support forming a GB football team.
Scotland will still play basketball separately at European level, following assurances from the world body, FIBA, that Scottish, Welsh, and English autonomy will be protected. The SFA chose to disregard similar guarantees from FIFA.
Of far greater concern to the sport in Scotland is that Delhi, hosts of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, may exclude basketball. There was a distinct lack of any assurances from Delhi representatives at the Commonwealth Games Federation general assembly last month in Melbourne.
Kevin Pringle, Basketball Scotland's chief executive, confirmed that £27,000 was allocated to the governing body on the back of Commonwealth participation in Australia.
"We have been talking to sportscotland about the implications, but without basketball in the Games, funding would be compromised," he said. They are already lobbying for Glasgow to include basketball if the city hosts in 2014, and FIBA are supporting this.
Insurance cover for Scotland's use of such as the NBA's Bobby Archibald for just one tournament would cost some £5000, so support does not go far. Archibald, yet to pull on his country's colours, is one of perhaps three Scots who could immediately hope to be included in a GB squad.
However, Bill McInnes, Britain's most capped player, now chairman of Basketball Scotland, and Sandy Sutherland, chairman of Great Britain Basketball, are both convinced the UK is capable of qualifying for London, and that Scotland can reap significant benefits. "Already there's a commitment to stage a GB match in Scotland, with all the benefits, commercially and in terms of exposure, which that would present," said Sutherland.
A new UK body will need to be set up. Discussions have been held with the British Olympic Association who refuse to intervene in a dispute which centres on England.
The government has pledged £3.99m over the three years to 2009 for development of GB men's and women's basketball. There will be at least as much again for the following three years to 2012. Only some £83m of the chancellor's £300m war chest was allocated last week.
The sport will need that to promote the UK game to a standard which will permit the hosts to compete in 2012. The BOA and FIBA want the team to be "credibly competitive", said a BOA spokesman last night.
That term is not defined, but the men would need to be inside the top 20 in Europe, a most intense area of competition, to qualify. Five of the 12 men's teams in the Athens Olympics were European.
Scotland, meanwhile, seem set to lose several players who are considering retirement following Melbourne, and a new national coach is due to be appointed this summer. |
http://www.theherald.co.uk/sport/60528.html
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