Super League Basketball (SLB), the top-flight competition in the UK, is taking the British Basketball Federation (BBF) to court in what is the latest escalation in the pair’s bitter feud.
SLB has accused the BBF of breaking UK competition law, abusing its “dominant position” as the sport’s governing body, and breaching its duties by failing to act in a rational, fair, and lawful manner.
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In March, SLB handed the BBF a pre-legal notice and has now moved to take the body to court, after the BBF suspended the league’s license.
Recently, the BBF moved to block the Manchester Basketball franchise from competing in the FIBA Basketball Champions League, stating that, as SLB is operating without a license from the BBF, it cannot endorse clubs competing in European competition.
While SLB claims that the BBF now understands that a license is not needed to operate, and that the BBF is open to recognizing SLB (a path to a return to European competition), it says that now the BBF will refuse to grant visa endorsements for foreign player recruitment unless SLB accepts an operating license that is limited to a one-year basis, a factor it says is “completely unviable.”
Those accusations stem from the almost year-long feud between the two surrounding the rights to operate the top-flight basketball competition in the UK after the collapse of the former British Basketball League competition.
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By GlobalDataIn a statement, SLB says: “SLB’s extensive efforts [to find a resolution] have been met with procrastination, shifting positions, and governance practices that, in SLB’s opinion, fall well short of what is expected from a national governing body overseeing a professional sport with livelihoods, careers, and businesses at stake.
“SLB wishes to make clear that it has no desire to operate independently of the national governing body.
“SLB also reiterates that despite the licence tender being unlawful in our view, we have no issue with another league (GBBL) being licensed to operate in the UK. We simply want to be able to operate our league free from unlawful harm.
“This legal action has been taken solely to protect the interests of our clubs, players, staff, and the wider basketball community, and to seek clarity on the lawful operation of leagues, employment opportunities, and the commercial sustainability of our sport.”
Owned by the league’s nine participating clubs, SLB was established in 2024 to operate a British basketball competition after the collapse of the former British Basketball League and its major investors, 777 Partners.
SLB was handed an interim license to operate the league for three seasons, but at the beginning of 2025, the BBF opted to award the long-term license for the men’s professional league to a US consortium led by former EuroLeague Basketball acting chief executive Marshall Glickman from the start of the 2025-26 season.
That decision prompted backlash from the SLB member clubs at the time, claiming that they had not been consulted and that the licensing process breached UK competition law and the legislation on the matter laid out by the global basketball governing body.
The Marshall Glickman-led consortium that won the licensing tender from the 2026-27 season onward, still has attracted no teams to its proposed competition, the details of which are unknown.
