Basketball Belgium, the Wallonia-Brussels Basketball Association and Basketbal Vlaanderen have filed a complaint in addition to an internal disciplinary investigation into the case of alleged fraud in the organization of fictitious tournaments, which allowed the Belgian 3 × 3 team, by improving its ranking, to participate in the Olympic Games from Tokyo. The Belgian Lions will nevertheless be present at the FIBA 3 × 3 Europe Cup this weekend at the Trocadéro, in Paris.
The Belgian team, represented by Team Antwerp, made up of Nick Celis, Rafael Bogaerts, Thierry Marien and Thibaut Vervoort, and which placed 4th in Tokyo, is suspected of having organized fictitious tournaments between August and October 2019. In a press release, the federation said:
“As long as the investigations are ongoing, the information available is not sufficient to suspend some players. The men’s 3 × 3 Olympic team will therefore participate, without modification in its composition, in the 3 × 3 European Championship which takes place from September 10 to 12 in Paris. In order to allow the current investigations to proceed in the best possible way, the three federations will not make any further statements and urge not to overwhelm the players concerned so that they can concentrate as much as possible on their sporting performances ” .
Photo: Thibaut Vervoort (FIBA)
