Basketball federation CEO urged to resign over 3x3 tournament fraud
The CEO of Basketball Flanders was aware of fraud committed by the Belgian 3x3 team before the 2021 Olympic Games, despite denying any knowledge, De Standaard reports. MPs are calling for Koen Umans to resign over the issue.
Last year, Antwerp Criminal Court sentenced former team captain Nick Celis to 240 hours of community service for organising fictitious tournaments and forging Covid-19 certificates ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
An audit seen by De Standaard shows that Umans was aware of the fraud. A memo circulated by Umans in April 2021, three months before the Games, states that “Team Antwerp (Nick Celis) has organised ‘fake tournaments’ in the past to gain ranking points”.
Umans has always denied having been aware of the events. He said he only learned of it when De Standaard published an article on the subject on 25 August 2021. This led to a judicial investigation and the conviction of three players and a Basketball Flanders employee.
Last week, Sports minister Annick De Ridder (N-VA) said the Strict Subsidy Supervision Service had conducted an audit of Basketball Flanders ahead of the European 3x3 Championships, which take place in Antwerp in September.
Its report warns of “serious risks as a result of the continued employment of the employee(s) involved (in the 3x3 fraud) (...) and the potential involvement of other employees, in particular the CEO, in the organisation of the fictitious tournaments”.
De Ridder gave Basketball Flanders until 10 January to implement the audit’s recommendations. She has since received feedback from the federation. “We will now review this internally and discuss it further with Basketball Flanders,” she said.
"Out of respect for basketball, I think he should resign"
Flemish MP Gwendolyn Rutten (Open VLD) has called for Umans to “respect his own ethical code and resign”. “We already knew that fraud had been committed. But the impression remained that only the small fry were caught,” she told Belga. “Now it is clear that the top, the CEO himself, was also aware of it. And yet he remains in place?”
According to Rutten, this goes directly against the association’s own code of ethics. “Rule 9 of the 10 golden rules literally says: ‘report those who try to discredit our sport’. That is very clear. But the CEO did nothing, he remained silent and then lied about it afterwards,” she said.
“Out of respect for basketball, I think he should resign. I cannot imagine that a board and a minister who value ethics in sport highly would think otherwise."
Groen MP Bogdan Vanden Berghe is also calling for Umans’ resignation. “This is unbelievable,” he said. “This goes against everything that fair play and sport stand for, and he no longer has a place here.”
#FlandersNewsService | Koen Umans, June 2025 © BELGA PHOTO VIRGINIE LEFOUR
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