FIBA will stick to rule on passport

MANILA, Philippines - SBP executive director Sonny Barrios said the other day FIBA will stick to its rule that a foreign-born player is required to obtain a passport of the country he or she intends to represent before turning 16 to be eligible as a local with blood lineage. The rule does not apply to a player who becomes a naturalized citizen but a national team may recruit only one under this exception.

FIBA cracked down on the rampant transformation of foreigners into locals at the 2011 FIBA Asia Championships in Wuhan where five of Qatar’s players were declared ineligible before the tournament started. The five were Tanguy Ngombo, Ousseynou N’Diaye, Mansour Ed Hadary, Hassan Mohamed and Mame Ndour. They were unable to prove their Qatar heritage so that to be eligible to play for the national team, they had to be naturalized citizens in which case only one could be in the lineup.

Qatar went on to play in Wuhan without the five players, losing to Uzbekistan, 27-12, and Iran, 40-4, both by default in the first period. The Uzbekistan game was stopped with 4:02 left when only one Qatar player was on the floor as everyone else had deliberately fouled out. The Iran game was halted with 2:18 left in the opening quarter for the same reason. Qatar decided to play “straight” in its last game against Chinese-Taipei and lost, 94-78.

One of the ineligible Qatar players Ngombo was the Dallas Mavericks second round pick in the 2011 NBA draft and had played for Qatar at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, averaging 19.5 points. He had also suited up for Qatar at the 2010 FIBA Asia Champions Cup. Aside from citizenship, Ngombo was involved in an age controversy with different birth certificates showing the year of birth to be 1984 in one and 1989 in another. He used to play for Al Rayyan in the Qatar league and recently transferred to Al Arabi Doha.

FIBA has declared that a foreign-born player with lineage to two countries must acquire the passport of the country he plans to represent before turning 16. “This practice of transforming foreigners into locals for a national team has been stopped by FIBA,” said SBP senior advisor Moying Martelino who served as Asian Basketball Confederation (now FIBA Asia) secretary-general for nine years and was once a FIBA Central Board member. “FIBA allows one naturalized player for each country and that’s it. So a Fil-Am born in the US can only play for the Philippines if he obtains a Philippine passport before turning 16. In fairness, (FIBA secretary-general) Mr. (Patrick) Baumann is asking for suggestions on any other way to control the practice of transforming foreigners into locals but I don’t think there’s a better way to do it. On our part, we just have to advise Fil-Am families in the US or Fil-foreigner families anywhere in the world that if they have a son or daughter who would like to play for the Philippine national team, he or she should get a passport before turning 16. Perhaps, we could request our embassies to make this known.”

Because of the FIBA rule, Fil-Tongan Moala Tautuaa will never be able to play for Gilas unless as a naturalized player. Tautuaa’s mother Romanita is a Filipina from Cabanatuan. Tautuaa, 25, recently got his Philippine passport. He should’ve obtained the passport before turning 16 to be eligible to play for Gilas. Tautuaa is now playing in the PBA D-League. He was discovered in the US by Filipino coach Ariel Vanguardia who enlisted him as an import with the Westports Malaysia Dragons in the ABL. Vanguardia confirmed that Tautuaa had not received a Philippine passport before turning 16. The same rule disqualifies Fil-Am Jordan Clarkson of the Los Angeles Lakers from ever seeing action for Gilas.

Martelino said the rule does not apply to a Fil-foreign player who was born in the Philippines. An example is Gilas cadet player Matt Ganuelas-Rosser of Talk ‘N’ Text. He was born in the Philippines, raised in the US and acquired his Philippine passport after turning 16. Because he was born in the Philippines, Rosser is eligible to play for Gilas.  

“Mr. Baumann doesn’t want a situation in FIBA like other international federations which allow transformation of foreigners into locals overnight,” said Martelino. In the case of handball, Qatar enlisted a slew of foreigners, turning the national team into virtually an all-import squad. At the recent World Handball Championships in Doha, 15 of Qatar’s 15 national players were foreigners from Montenegro, France, Cuba, Bosnia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Iran and Egypt. With a souped-up roster, Qatar went all the way to the finals but lost to France, 25-22, in the battle for the gold medal.

In the case of table tennis, countries all over the world import Chinese players for their national team. Some of the “imports” are Li Jiao and Li Jie of the Netherlands, Wu Jenduo of Germany, Tian Yuan and Tan Ruiwu of Croatia, Ni Xinlian of Luxembourg, Kou Lei of Ukraine and Miao Miao of Australia. While globalization is now a trend in sports, there must be limits because without restrictions, it will lead to abuse.

Martelino said the SBP intends to address the eligibility issue particularly as it disenfranchises legitimate Fil-foreigners. “Unfortunately, the Philippines is adversely affected by this rule,” said a basketball expert who requested anonymity. “Perhaps, FIBA can allow exceptions so that even with the rule, it may look into specific cases of players with blood lineage to the country they wish to represent. This will involve strict scrutiny of documents particularly the birth certificates of parents to prove blood lineage to the country to be represented. If FIBA permits it, the Philippines will be able to enlist Clarkson, Tautuaa and many others by exception. Legitimate Fil-foreigners should not be prejudiced by this rule.”