Bursa female team forced to play with 5 players due to visa issues / News - Basketnews.com

Bursa Uludag Basketball was forced to go up against the London Lions in the FIBA EuroCup Women playoffs with just 5 players and no bench due to visa issues.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

An unpleasant episode occurred in women's basketball this week in whichBursa Uludag Basketball, was able to bring only 5 players with them to visit the London Lions in the FIBA EuroCup Women playoffs because of visa problems.

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The technical staff was also almost fully missing, and the team had to compete with the same 5 players throughout the game, all of them receiving 40 minutes.

On December 21, the unfair match-up took place anyway, and Bursaspor was decisively defeated with a score of 122-63.

Bursaspor stated that they made the applications to the British Consulate in Istanbul on time but ultimately did not receive the visas on time.

Although the green-and-white squad also appealed to the Turkish Basketball Federation for help, British Basketball (the country's federation) and the British Embassy in Turkiye ultimately did not assist the situation.

The club also noted that although all of the players had Schengen visas, the United Kingdom's visa requirement caused a problem.

To add insult to injury, the club's president, Berk Aladag, stated that they were threatened with a fine of 40,000 euros and a lifetime ban on joining the organization if they did not participate in the game.

In order to get around this, one of the 5 players of Bursa, Eda Sahin, had to play even though she had been injured for 2 weeks. She spent most of her time under the basket, trying to run the time out.

Ultimately, as this was a rematch in the play-off round 1, Bursaspor was eliminated from the competition with an aggregate score of 199-116. The club did publish a press release, but they did not state if they were going to have a follow-up on the incident.

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