Women’s team stage protest over ‘double standards’
MEMBERS of the Koopspor women’s basketball team staged a protest against “double standards” over foreign player signings when they played runaway league stars Near East University (NEU).
The Koopspor side turned out wearing kit bearing foreign names instead of their own when they took on a NEU squad which is on course for a Turkish and European lague and cup “treble”.
Last Friday’s game saw NEU trounce their opponents 63-49 in the local Commercial Insurance Women’s Basketball League — 19 of the points scored by new signing Lauren, who joined the side last week.
The protest followed complaints aired publicly by Koopspor, accusing the TRNC’s Basketball Federation of “arbitrary decisions” over the import of foreign players. Club chairman Talat Yalkut said they had been assured by the federation that restrictions preventing new signings during the season remained, but the “rules have been changed arbitrarily” in favour of “one club”.
“The basketball club in question had to part ways with a player who had been transferred to them, for certain reasons, and then they brought in a new transfer and the federation bent over backwards to allow this,” he said.
Mr Yalkut did not name the “offending” club, but his players held up a banner declaring, in a play on words: “With love to Near Federation”.
NEAR East University’s women pursued their Turkish Women’s Super League title quest with a thumping 103-79 victory over OGM Ormanspor last Saturday.