B.E.B.L. Commissioner Says Jeremiah Toney’s Suspension Was on Valid Grounds

Among the seven reasons that the Orange Walk Running Rebels gave for its withdrawal, the most contentious surrounds the signing of Jeremiah Toney, an American basketball athlete. Toney was initially the Belmopan Trojans’ roster. According to the Running Rebels, they were notified that Toney wanted out of the Trojans, claiming a breach of contract. Their release notes that the Running Rebels had their sight set on signing Toney after confirming with Commissioner Gill that he was not in possession of a contract between the player and the Belmopan Trojans as per the league’s rules. The release goes on to say that Commissioner Gill committed to securing a release from the Trojans for Toney and advised the Running Rebels that they could proceed with signing him and submitting the contract. The Rebels says Commissioner Gill made the matter worse when he later suspended Toney for a year for signing two contracts. This came after the Running Rebels placed Toney on their roster for a game on March nineth.

 

Glenn Gill, Commissioner, B.E.B.L.

“I asked Mr. Manzanero if I can have a copy of the contract with this young man and he sent it to me. The following day I went to Belmopan I went to Belmopan and I picked up Mr. Toney by his apartment and asked him if we could go have a discussion. We did, we were there for two and a half hours. He spoke for the first half hour to forty-five minutes. I asked him, are there any other team owners talking to you about going to his team. His immediate answer was no. I asked him if he had a contract signed with the Trojans. He said yes, I have one. I said, can I see it. He said I can’t produce it right now because it was lost in my phone, it feels at the split in Caye Caulker and so I can’t. He said, unless I get on the phone and call the U.S. and I can get it off my cloud. So, I pulled out my phone and asked him, do you recognize this document. I said, is that your signature, he said yes. I said, do you recognize the person who signed as a witness, he said yes that is my agent. I said ok, I know Mr. Manzanero’s signature. He said, but that is not the contract I ended up with. So, I said could you kindly let me have that as quickly as possible. So I was very shocked, even before the game happened on Friday, I called Mr. Aldo and Troy Gabb Junior and said please don’t play this player, remember this guy hasn’t been released as yet. When Mr. Gabb called me and told me he would send in a document, he asked him if a contract was lodged with the league, I told him I have a contract in my possession that I spoke to the player about. I said I am not a lawyer so I can’t say if it was lodged or not. He knew all of this. If the team didn’t want to keep the young man and he wanted to play with them, of course that would have been a good deal as far as I am concerned.”