Super League Basketball's mid-season rule change on imports confirmed and explained

The previous rule decreed clubs could bring in six Americans and change three through the course of the season, meaning a maximum of nine could play across the duration of the campaign.

Now, after a vote between the nine member clubs, that has been relaxed to a maximum of 12 over the course of the season and only to be made by the trade deadline at the end of February. The hard and fast rule of only six imports being allowed in a gameday squad remains.

Five clubs voted in favour of the amendment, three against, with one abstention.

It is a move that has drawn criticism from a section of fans questioning whether the integrity of the league has been jeopardised. There is also a knock-on effect of fewer homegrown players getting game time in the British league.

But Sarah Backovic, general manager of Sheffield Sharks who is the club’s representative on the Super League board, says the rush last summer to save the competition following the collapse of 777 Partners and the BBL put them behind.

Speaking after Sharks held on to a nervy 87-85 win over Cheshire Phoenix, Backovic told The Yorkshire Post: “We are permitted to make a rule change if we democratically agree, and anyone can nominate any type of rule amendment at any time. What we would argue is we didn’t really have a chance to review rules and regulations, we had six to seven weeks to pull a league together this summer.

“We had our previous rules and regulations and based our current ones on that.

“But we didn’t have the time to sit and think through how we wanted our league to operate in terms of players and development.

“The suggestion was brought up to cover injuries. Our schedules are so hard for a lot of teams, especially those that play in Europe, so the amendment was, if we get an injury should we permit a change?

“So it’s an amendment, and we can make more amends if we need to.”

Backovic also says the request did not come from the Caledonia Gladiators who have made a mess of the season, now on their fourth head coach and at the previous maximum of nine imports before the mid-point of the year.

“It wasn’t suggested by Scotland (Caledonia), it was a discussion we had and we took a vote on it and the vote was we should be able to make amends if there are certified injuries,” she said.

“So you hire six Americans and you can change three, but now you can change up to six.

“It does assist the situation in Scotland but it wasn’t suggested for that, it was purely suggested to alleviate injuries. It’s not a Machiavellian plot to increase non-nationals.

“It’s still six non-nationals. It’s just now if someone gets injured you’re permitted to make a change.

“And that is only until the end of February when the trade deadline comes into effect.”

Asked if that rule could also be changed by a mid-season vote, Backovic replied: “I think we would have liked it to move but that’s not our decision as a league, that’s a federation decision, so unlikely at this juncture.”

Sheffield brought in two new American imports in the past fortnight, Scottie Lindsey and Rickey McGill. They were both signed as injury cover for Rodney Chatman III and EC Matthews, and takes their number of imports to the previous cap of nine.

Chatman (knee) is unlikely to feature again this year but Matthews has a hamstring injury and could be back sooner.

If he comes back before the end of February, Sheffield may have a decision to make on which player to cut, but Backovic revealed Lindsey has been signed on a month-to-month deal, partly in anticipation of such a scenario.

On the subject of whether a relaxation of the rule affects the growth of British players in the league, Backovic insisted Sheffield and their rivals would love more homegrown players on their squad.

“We try,” said Backovic, who this summer recruited GB stars Jamell Anderson and Mike Ochereobia to take to five the number of British passport holders they have on the team.

“It’s important to us to get British players because our ambitions are to play in Europe (where you need more homegrown players), we want that high level of British players but that’s very competitive and hard to achieve.

“We can’t just go out and get any player we want. If you get a talent from Division 1 you’re sabotaging a team from that league. So you have to do that in the summer in your recruitment. We have a chief scout now at the Sharks who maps British players, it’s our ambition to recruit more Brits as we go along.

“We’ve always liked to have high-level Brits at Sheffield and we try to find the best we can afford. Playing basketball is a short career and those kids want to earn as much as they can. As a league we’re growing but we’re not quite competing at the salary levels around other parts of Europe and the G League.

“No British team doesn’t want to have six, seven, eight great British players, but the game is growing and the talent pool is growing with that, and eventually we will get there, but nothing is going to happen overnight, we’ve been at this for a couple of decades now.”

With that in mind, a big summer is ahead for the league as it reflects on year one out of the ashes of the BBL and near financial collapse, and builds a new constitution to move forward. They were only initially granted a licence by the British Basketball Federation to operate the league for three years.

“There’s so many things we’re going to look at in the summer that we didn’t have time to look at,” said Backovic.

“Scheduling is No 1, structure of competition is No 2. Permitted workers is No 3. How we structure it to align it to ensure that we keep as much parity as possible throughout the league. There’s been seasons in the past where one team has got 12/14 players and then you’ve got 6/7 guys just killing themselves, it’s just poor player welfare. So we’ve made that adjustment to say you can’t play players when they’re not fit.

“We’ve kept Chatman and EC in Sheffield, rehabilitating. We’re not kicking them out and saying go home you’re no use to us.

"We want to make sure they’re fully repaired and rehabilitated and ready to go next season whether that’s for us or someone else.

“That was the point of bringing in investment and more professionalism to the league. There were times when that wasn’t even possible financially for most clubs.

“What we’re doing as a league now is right by the players and right by us in terms of being able to compete at the highest possible level.”