Following advice received yesterday from both the Sports Council and the Department of Agriculture, Irish Basketball’s National Competitions Committee (NCC) have decided to abandon the 2000/2001 ESB League season due to the continuing Foot & Mouth crisis.

With no clear date available for when the league could resume, the NCC felt clubs could not sustain the financial hit of paying their professional players indefinitely and decided to abandon the season at this point. The League had just three weeks remaining when it was originally suspended on March 1st due to the F & M crisis.

The 2001 title will not be awarded to any club, despite the fact that THORN Killester were clear leaders at the time of the suspension and on course to their first league title since 1976 and a league and club double this season. The NCC felt that as there was still a mathematical chance that the title could go to another team, they could not award Killester the title.

The records will show that Killester were league leaders at the time the league was abandoned.

The ESB National Championships, due to be held on March 24th/25th have also been abandoned.

The ESB Women’s League title had already been secured by Bausch & Lomb Wildcats, and the ESB Men’s Division 1 title goes to Longnecks Ballina for the third successive year.

For further information, please contact:

Maire Scully
Irish Basketball Association
Tel: +353 (0)1 459 0211
Fax: +353 (0)1 459 0212
E-Mail: mscully@iba.ie