Venezuela could be left out of the fight for quotas to the basketball tournament of the Tokyo-2020 Olympic Games, due to a legal dispute involving ex-NBA Greivis Vásquez and that would exclude her from the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).

The body that regulates the discipline warned on Thursday of possible sanctions against government interference in the elections of the Venezuelan Basketball Federation (FVB), ​​scheduled for 2017, but suspended by the Supreme Court.

If FIBA ​​determines that there has been interference from third parties, it can take the measures it deems necessary, said the secretary general of the entity, Patrick Bumann, in a letter addressed to the Venezuelan electoral power, which prepares a parallel election for April 14.

Bumann recalled that in June and July will be played the next games of the national team for the move to the FIBA ​​World Cup China-2019, pre-qualifiers for Tokyo-2020. A solution must be found as soon as possible.

Behind this battle is one of the icons of the local basketball, Vásquez, who promotes a change of managers in the FVB by accusing the current ones of corruption and of erroneously driving the threads of the sport that has given more glory to Venezuela in recent years. .

The country won the South American Championship in 2014 and 2016 and the FIBA ​​Americas 2015, which earned it the qualification to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Vásquez, 31 years old and currently a free agent after a long ankle injury, has support from the Ministry of Sports.

He played in the NBA between the 2010-2011 and 2016-2017 seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies, the New Orleans Hornets, the Sacramento Kings, the Toronto Raptors, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Brooklyn Nets.

Bumann considered that the parallel elections constitute an attempt to create a new Federation, so that Venezuela could not compete in tournaments of continental or world level organized by FIBA ​​in case of being realized.

The director invited delegates from the FVB and the electoral power to a meeting in Geneva, with the participation of the president of the Venezuelan Olympic Committee, Eduardo Álvarez, an official close to the government.

FUENTE