2 weeks Ago By Nick Westby
Did you know with a Digital subscription to Yorkshire Post, you can get access to all of our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport are understood to be monitoring the situation concerning the licence to run the league. The British Basketball Federation (BBF) and Super League Basketball are at war over the governing body’s decision to award the licence to run the league from 2026 to an external group of investors, with a plan to open up the sport to new markets.
Super League Basketball - which includes Sheffield Sharks and a number of clubs that have been part of a professional top flight in its many guises for a number of decades - have alleged that the tender process was illegal and unjust, and that they do not legally require a licence to run their own league. Advertisement Advertisement UK Sport allocated the BBF £2.925m for the period leading up to LA Olympics of 2028, with a specific eye on developing a world class programme in the new 3x3 version of the game.
UK Sport is understood to be monitoring that investment into the BBF, with the protection of public money its primary focus. Neither body appears ready to intervene at this stage. What could tip the balance is how the sport’s global governing body, FIBA, reacts.
There is a precedent. In 2014, FIBA banned Japan from international competition because two rival leagues were operating in the country. The governing body only reinstated Japan nine months later once the two leagues had been unified.
Advertisement Advertisement Such a sanction imposed on British basketball would jeopardise the progress both the men’s and women’s teams have made on the international stage in recent years , headlined by both teams qualifying for EuroBasket later this summer. It could also jeopardise the public money invested in basketball by UK Sport..
