THE UAAP board is set to hold an emergency meeting Saturday hours before the 76th season of the league kicks off to determine whether or not it will allow three foreigners to suit up even without the required documents to prove their eligibility.
The foreign players whose status is under question include Charles Mammie of University of the East, Ingrid Sewa of host Adamson, and Alfred Aroga of National University. A Spin.ph source who refused to be named pending the holding of the emergency meeting, said a question was raised on certain documents regarding the eligibility of the three.
The fresh development meant Mammie, Sewa, and Aroga are facing the possibility of missing not only their respective teams’ debut games, but other matches as well if they are not cleared by the league to play.
The Red Warriors, whom Mamie helped in winning the Filoil Flying V Premier Cup pre-season tournament title, open the season with a highly-anticipated showdown against Far Eastern University at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
The Falcons, where Sewa is part of their 16-man roster, won’t be playing until Sunday at 2 p.m. against University of the Philippines, while Aroga and the Bulldogs will face five-time reigning champion Ateneo in the second game at 4 p.m.
In a statement after a recent UAAP board meeting on eligibility issue, league secretary-treasurer Malou Isip admitted there are still foreigners who haven’t completed yet the required documents in order for them to play this season.
“For foreigners, it’s only a matter of submitting original copies of their documents as aliens which are tasked to submit when the UAAP board meets anew,” said Isip.
In previous seasons, the UAAP board allowed foreigners to play but risks forfeiting the game if they fail to submit other documents by the end of the first round.
The most recent case was Chris Ball of University of the Philippines who submitted his alien certificate of registration (ACR) way after the end of the first round of Season 75.
Ball, who played the entire first round of the eliminations last year, however, was cleared after the UAAP determined that weather disturbances that hit the country at the time delayed the issuance of his ACR by the Bureau of Immigration.
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