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Blackwater slapped with PHP100K fine for ill-advised practice sesh

The Elite were slapped with a PHP100,000 fine, and their owner will be probed too. PBA Images (file photo)
By Ivan Saldajeno

MANILA--The Blackwater Elite will have to pay a huge sum of money after their owner, Dioceldo Sy, bared in an online interview that they just went back to practice.

The PBA on Thursday meted the Ever Bilena franchise with a PHP100,000 fine for its return to training, which is still not yet allowed as of this moment.

While the Inter-Agency Task Force gave the go-signal to the resumption of professional team practices amid the COVID-19 pandemic two weeks ago, the Games and Amusements Board said that they can only resume practices once the joint administrative order with the Philippine Sports Commission and the Department of Health regarding the practice protocols has been approved by health secretary Francisco Duque.

For his part, PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial said during the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum on Tuesday that he is targeting July 22 as the restart of the practices, which means Blackwater practiced a week too early.

Marcial ordered the players to undergo swab testing and a seven-day self quarantine should their tests come out negative.

Meanwhile, Marcial is now looking as well into Sy's reaction regarding the sanction already slapped by the PBA and is to be meted by GAB, especially when he said that he is now putting his club for sale.

Sy said that he was "misquoted" in the interview and that he clarified that he only saw two players doing some shootaround when he arrived to the Elite's practice venue.

He then said that he was puzzled that the PBA and GAB will slap his squad with sanctions when there was no legitimate practice session that took place as he now claims.

Apparently disappointed with the penalties he will incur, Sy suddenly blurted out plans to sell the franchise for PHP150 million. Marcial sees Sy's statement as "serious".

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