Super City Rangers axed from NZNBL competition for 'multiple breaches'

The Super City Rangers have been axed from the New Zealand National Basketball League after breaching multiple areas of their agreement with the competition.

NBL general manager Justin Nelson announced this morning the Auckland-based franchise has been cut due to breaches under the Participation Agreement.

"During the league's recent review of the team and its operations, the Rangers were found to have breached a number of rules under the Participation Agreement," Nelson said in a statement.

"The most material breach was the Super City Rangers not being financial with the NBL, with outstanding debts owed to the league, including the full annual fees for the recently completed 2019 season. This was the catalyst for the termination.

"The Rangers had one year remaining on its Participation Agreement, which has now been terminated. The team will no longer compete in the Sal's NBL."

It comes after the club was put in the limelight by their trio of imports - Tim Quarterman, Nnanna Egwu and Venky Jois - who claimed they were owed money by the Rangers after they were all released early when it became apparent the team had no chance of making the finals. The Rangers finished what has become their final season with 3 wins and 15 losses.

The Rangers however refuted the allegations and countered by saying one of the trio still owed them money instead.

The issues led to a review and from there, today's decision was made.

"The review into the Super City Rangers has been thorough," Nelson said.

"The review uncovered a number of breaches that has led to this termination, not least of which is a large debt owed to the league.

"Unfortunately the Rangers have missed every deadline issued for payments owed to the league and have made no proactive moves to settle this debt.

"We are aware of other debts, but these are up to the Rangers to deal with and we hope they will."