British basketball crisis: BBF went bust over legal fees and GBB League deal is now dead
Money spent on legal fees fighting against its own league was one of the primary reasons that British basketball’s governing body went bust, The Yorkshire Post can confirm.
The process to liquidate the British Basketball Federation (BBF) began on Thursday and also spells the end of the contract signed between the governing body and the controversial GBB League, which was awarded the exclusive licence to run the professional competition, initially from September 2026.
That decision sparked the civil war in the sport with Super League Basketball (SLB) - the existing league of which Sheffield Sharks are one of nine equal shareholding members - suing the governing body over what it deemed to be an illegal process.
The BBF and the GBB League launched a counter-suit against that, but it proved a fatal move for the governing body which was reliant primarily on Government funding.
The GBB League - which threatened to disrupt traditional league structures - has struck a defiant tone in recent months, responding to the resignation as chair of the BBF of their chief ally Chris Grant OBE in October by saying its deal was with the governing body and not one man, and then once news of the BBF’s financial issues arose, by saying it was taking legal counsel to “evaluate its options” after “significant sums of money had been paid to the BBF”.
However, liquidation of BBF’s assets now means that deal is dead and whoever takes on the governance of the sport in this country is under no obligation to honour any pre-existing contracts, including that signed with the GBB League.
That means the radical start-up, from which frontman Marshall Glickman resigned late last month, would need to start negotiations all over again with whoever takes charge - a difficult task given the majority of the British basketball community has spent the past year resisting their advances.
Earlier this week, the GBB League appointed American Mr Robert Paul Thomas as a director, per Companies House.
But they were not invited to or have played any part in the high-level discussions going on to discuss the future of the sport in this country, given millions of pounds has been invested in basketball by the Government over the past year.
A number of relevant stakeholders in the game have been involved in those discussions, including representatives from the SLB, England Basketball and UK Sport.
It is understood that the DCMS has not been involved in those talks.
Dean Watson of Begbies Traynor Group has been appointed as liquidator of the BBF.
In a statement he said: “Unfortunately, due to the financial position of the British Basketball Federation it was unable to continue to operate as the national governing body responsible for basketball in Britain.
“A combination of factors including ongoing litigation with Super League Basketball, the withdrawal of funding from various bodies and the consequences of suspension from the Federation of International Basketball Associations (FIBA) has led to the board taking the steps to place BBF into liquidation.
“We have been appointed as liquidators of BBF to wind up its affairs including the realisation of assets and perform statutory investigations which are standard in any form of insolvency process.”
The word “ongoing” means the case is still live but is reliant on all parties wanting to continue pursuing it.
The end of the GBB League deal is a major win for SLB which has been fighting to stave it off since January.