Basketball Association of Malawi (Basmal) has exonerated Malawi Assemblies of God University (Magu) and University of Lilongwe (UniLil) from accusations of using ineligible players in the ongoing National Bank of Malawi Mo626 College Basketball competition.
The accusations led to several Central Division teams boycotting their matches at Kamuzu Institute for Sports on October 28.
This was after 13 Central and Northern division team captains had lodged a complaint about what they claimed was the use of ineligible players by Magu and UniLil.
The players in question are Alexander Mbewe, David Gwetsele, David Maloya and Ndaona Chitenje.
The captains, therefore, threatened to boycott their matches if Basmal did not address their concerns.
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But Basmal advised the teams against the boycott, saying the matter was being investigated.
This did not yield any positive response as the teams proceeded with the boycott, which resulted into forfeiture of points.
Basmal has since released a determination of the matter following the conclusion of an investigation by its independent Appeals Committee.
“Magu were wrongly accused as none of the players mentioned were students at their institution. The four players mentioned were offered athletics scholarships and accepted by UniLil to pursue undergraduate programmes in October 2022. Award letters, scholarships and student IDs were provided by the university registrar. The players, due to the nature of their work demands, opted for online studies. UniLil offers online, ODEL/ courses and enrollment is flexible.
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“Based on these findings and our further investigations, the result for the game between UniLil vs Magu in week one stands. Further to the committee findings, the protesting teams did not follow the protest procedure as per Mo626 tournament rules. The teams that boycotted their games during week three have lost their [points] via forfeit,” the determination reads.
Southern Zone Basketball League Chairperson Raymond Chioko chaired the appeal committee which probed the matter and consisted of Northern, Central and Southern zone technical directors Aaron Chimpeni, Liberty Nyathi and Hendry Amosi, respectively.
In some of its recommendations, the committee noted that there was a need to clarify player eligibility in future editions as there seems to be a gap among institutions that offer athletic scholarships and those that do not, creating an element of unfair competition.
“We would also recommend Basmal to revise the amount for the protest to align with the spirit of Fiba guidelines as the issue of a protest is considered to be a serious matter where teams protesting must have sufficient evidence before going ahead to protest. The jury, though, found several faults in the procedure on how the concern was brought to attention and the lack of clarity in the competition’s rules.
“Basketball, just like any other sport, has rules that govern how the sport should be played. Each competition has specific rules which all participants must adhere to and, in the absence of clarity, the rules governing the sport globally take precedence,” the investigation report reads.
