The Basketball Africa League (BAL) is probing the Cape Town Tigers over alleged incorrect reporting of player payments during the 2023 season, a club director has told ESPN.
The BAL's minimum payment threshold is $3,900 per player per season. However, ESPN has seen correspondence from former Tigers player Liam Reid stating that he was paid only $3,700 in 2023.
After the discrepancy was presented to the BAL, they began investigating the issue ahead of the finalisation of payment of the Tigers' 2024 BAL participation fee, club director Lari Kangas said.
Kangas told ESPN: "The CTT documents didn't match Liam's signed documents.
"That's what the BAL told us and [they] showed the documents. They used the word 'fraudulent'. [They] said one of the two documents (either the one sent by Tigers management or the one sent by Reid) must be fraudulent."
The BAL has confirmed they are looking into the alleged discrepancy regarding payment of Reid, but denied that the league was withholding part of the Tigers' participation fee over his case specifically.
A league spokesperson said: "In general, upon the completion of each BAL season, teams are required to fulfil all their obligations upon which all the remaining participation fee payments for a team are processed."
Co-club director Raphael Edwards, the public face of the team, has been accused by multiple players across a period of three years of reneging on financial agreements, many of which pertained to the Road to BAL qualifiers under the jurisdiction of FIBA.
Among those who have accused Edwards of failing to honour contracts in interviews with ESPN are former players Reid, Chris Gabriel, Raphiael Putney and Pieter Prinsloo.
Other players, staff members and investors who have been involved with the Tigers at varying points across their three BAL seasons have affirmed the veracity of their allegations against Edwards, but asked to remain anonymous.
The Tigers made the quarterfinals of the 2022 and 2023 BAL seasons, and achieved their best-ever finish when they made the semifinals in 2024.
When contacted for comment, Edwards said: "As far as the Liam situation [goes], our GM is writing a response to the league. We will also have to wait on the board to see if he can respond to you directly about what happened."
With regards to allegations made by other players, he said: "While I'm not allowed to say much, none of those players had anything reneged on by me or the club."
Concerning broader complaints over the Cape Town Tigers' finances over the past three years, BAL president Amadou Gallo Fall told ESPN: "As independently owned and operated organizations, teams that play in the BAL are responsible for negotiating and fulfilling the terms of their agreements with players and coaches, though the BAL does have a minimum salary requirement for players that all teams agree to prior to their participation in the BAL.
"In the few instances where we've been made aware of teams not paying player salaries on time for their play in a BAL season, we have addressed it with the team directly.
"We take credible allegations of non-payment or misconduct by teams that participate in the BAL extremely seriously and work together with our partner FIBA to address these issues directly with teams and players."
The Tigers were scheduled to play in the Basketball South Africa National Club Championships from Aug. 20-23, beginning the process of qualifying for the 2025 BAL.
A highly placed source told ESPN that the board voted not to participate in the tournament while it clears its debts, but given the disunity among directors, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they could field a team regardless.
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