LEBANON QUESTIONS ELIGIBILITY OF LASSITER AND LUTZ
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 15 Sep 2011
In a totally unexpected move Lebanon has questioned the eligibility of Marcio Lassiter and Chris Lutz, key members of the Smart Gilas national team to the FIBA Asia Men?s Championships in Wuhan, China which is the qualifying tournament for a sole berth in the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Talk N? Text coach Chot Reyes who is one of those helping Head Coach Rajko Toroman told the Inquirer a short while ago that Lebanon claimed Lassiter and Lutz were naturalized players which is farthest from the truth.
Reyes said Butch Antonio ?showed them all the documents and discussed all the points to Hagop Khajirian in our favor. Hagop is the FIBA Asia deputy secretary general to Malaysia?s Dato Yeoh who is ill and, according to Martelino , ?leaves everything to Hagop? who, significantly, is Lebanese..
Reyes said Hagop was ?Makulit lang talaga.?
He said they ?already involved Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas executive director Sonny Barrios and former FIBA Asia secretary general Moying Martelino. They already talked to Patrick Baumann, FIBA secretary general and Legal Affairs Manager Benjamin Cohen. They understand our position.?
Reyes said SBP had already written to Baumann to formalize our claim.?
The Philippines plays United Arab Emirates in our opening game of the group matches later today.
Martelino told the Inquirer this morning that he had spoken to both Baumann and Cohen and explained that under the provisions of the Philippine Constitution since one of the parents of both Lassiter and Lutz were Filipinos at the time of their birth they were considered ?natural born Filipinos.?
Martelino pointed out that Lassiter and Lutz had played in the SEABA championships which was a quakifier for the FIBA Asia Championships and also saw action in the FIBA-sanction Champions Cup tournament.ed
Martelino said ?we have asked FIBA to make a ruling.. We leave out fate up to them.?
The latest word from Reyes is that they have now asked for the passport of Lutz and have indicated thata decision will be made before the Philippines 6:00 p.m. gave today.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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