Barrios explains "probationary" clause in FIBA ruling

The brawl during the Gilas-Australia game led to the former's Sept. 17 game against Qatar to be held behind closed doors, and there could be more. Nikki Collantes (file photo)

By Ivan Saldajeno

MAKATI--Gilas will surely play its Sept. 17 home game against Qatar behind closed doors after the FIBA ruling regarding the July 2 brawl was made on Thursday.

[Related Story: Gilas-Qatar game to be played behind closed doors]

However, the interesting part of the closed-door ruling is a clause where "a ban for two more home games has been placed under a probationary period of 3 years."

Sought for clarification during a press conference called by SBP at the Ramon Cojuangco Building of PLDT an hour after the verdict was made public, SBP's executive director, Sonny Barrios, said, "Lumaro ka sa Qatar. Closed-door ka. Lumaro ka sa home game ng Kazakhstan, open. Nagkagulo. So yung susunod mo, closed-door ka na uli."

Basically speaking, FIBA will closely monitor the Nov. 30 game between Gilas and Kazakhstan, and if another case of unruly behavior ensues, the Dec. 3 game against Iran will be a closed-door game. The monitoring will continue until 2021.

However, Barrios hopes that there will no more closed-door games other than the Qatar game.

"Ang idasal natin: Sana wala nang gulo para wala nang behind closed doors kundi Qatar," Barrios quipped.

Follow him on Twitter: @IvanSaldajeno