fRom, the outsider’s perspective, British basketball has never made it that good. It is firmly established as the second most popular participating team sport in the country, with over 1.5 million people playing at least twice a month. In December 2024, the sport received three times the amount it received during the previous Olympic cycle, combining £4,475,000 in two grants from British Sports and Sports England over the next four years.
There was good news in the courtroom as well. The British woman will compete in this summer’s European Championship thanks to an overwhelming victory over Denmark this month. next week.
However, when it hurts the surface, sports are facing a governance crisis. This is described by several people involved in the game as the Civil War.
The problem has been baffling professional games for years, but last year we reached a crisis. Before pursuing Everton Football Club in vain, 777 Partner bought a 45% stake in the British Basketball League (BBL) and bought a dominant interest in the London Lions, the champion for the past two years. Miami-based investment companies that have purchased stocks in several elite football clubs, including Seville, Genoa and Vasco da Gama, are often late in contractual payments to the BBL.
When the 777 partners were liquidated last year, the BBL collapsed into it. A new competition featuring nine professional clubs, Super League Basketball (SLB), has been established. It is dominated by Premier Basketball Ltd, a consortium led by Sheffield Sharks director Sarah Buckbic, and plans to run the league for three years.
Meanwhile, the British Basketball Federation (BBF), the UK’s British management agency, has announced a kind process of finding a new men’s professional league partner. Last month, the bidding process concluded with an American consortium of Marshall Glickman, Chris Dirabou and Arjun Meter.
However, the club is deeply unhappy with the handling of BBF bids and threatens to set up their own league. They sent documents of concern to the BBF Board and the government, and officials from the Ministry of Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) have pledged to investigate. Club concerns have also been raised in British Sports and Sports England, which manages funding for elite and recreational sports, respectively. Sources from several clubs say the BBF has refused to share details of the Glickman Group offering, and the group has not yet shown proof of funds. As a result, the new league, which is scheduled to be fully operational this summer, will not have clubs or venues.
“Over the past few months, Super League basketball has repeatedly and personally communicated concerns with the UK Basketball Federation regarding the legality of the bidding application process to run a men’s professional league in the UK,” said SLB. a spokesperson for
“Following the lack of substantial response, all nine Super League basketball clubs have made the difficult decision not to participate in the process. Super League basketball is concerned with the legality of the British Basketball Federation’s bidding process. We also welcome third party investigations and continue to engage with all the stakeholders needed to protect the future of basketball in the UK.”
Meanwhile, the BBF has promised the club a meeting with all members of the Glickman Group and an opportunity to ask questions about their financial background and other business links, although no dates have been set for this summit.
The issue was discussed with DCMS officials at a public committee meeting held in Westminster last week. Labour MPs in the district, including Sheffield Shark’s House, raised concerns about the bidding process, arguing that the financial uncertainty surrounding sports could lead to defaults on covid loans granted by the government. Nine clubs received loan packages worth £3 million during the pandemic, but seven have already been fully repaid.
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“The way the department allowed the UK basketball federation to basically franchise the franchise to run the league has put the loans you owe from several clubs at risk,” Betts said. . “I understand that Leicester and Newcastle are becoming more and more likely to show that they will be difficult to pay off their loans due to the worsening basketball financial situation. I’ve asked about this, You seem very pleased with this franchise with people who have not had a history of running sports before.”
Two senior DCMS officials told Betts that it is not the government’s role to intervene in commercial sports operations. “There is a clear rule that if governance is not done properly along the (Sport England) code, it is difficult,” said Polly Payne, Director of Policy at DCMS. “However, they are not involved in very detailed commercial negotiations.”
The BBF refused to comment when contacted, citing an oral agreement with SLB. This is understood to support the strictness of the bid, although not making an official statement at this stage.
One possible explanation of what grew into existential conflict was the BBF’s clear belief that SLB itself would launch a bid to manipulate the license, which resulted in it being locked out of the process. In an interview with the Hoopsfix podcast published last September, Vaughn Millette, a temporary SLB chair, showed that such a bid is imminent, saying, “I think I’m the only one who can win.” But we just have to respect the process. “But that couldn’t be realized. The BBF told the BBC last month that it believed SLB would bid on becoming a long-term licensee and thought it was inappropriate to “be closely involved in the definition of proposed terms and criteria.”
A BBF Board meeting was held on Wednesday evening to discuss the next steps, and while positions on both sides appear to be in place, there is little hope for a quick solution.
Reports from New York that the NBA wants to start games in Manchester from 2026 in addition to London have lightened the mood somewhat, but sports priorities guarantee that there will be a domestic league that will function later this year I’m doing it.
