Latu hearing disallowed due to timing

Netball New Zealand will not have the opportunity to present Cathrine Latu’s eligibility for the Silver Ferns due to the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling a technicality in the timing around the case.

NNZ has been in discussions with the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) to seek clearance of New Zealand born Cathrine Latu’s Silver Ferns eligibility. First turned down 18 months ago, IFNA entered into a lengthy debate with Netball New Zealand over Cathrine’s eligibility. Throughout this period NNZ’s repeated request to have the application heard by an independent arbitrator was declined and NNZ felt going to CAS was the only available option left.

Today’s ruling by CAS suggests that NNZ should have applied to CAS after the first issuing of IFNA’s decline in October 2009. Going to CAS at this time was not an option as NNZ believed the issue could still be resolved directly with IFNA. Over the period IFNA continued to engage with NNZ over the issue. Only in December 2010 did IFNA finally rule against NNZ’s application and that was the decision which NNZ appealed to CAS about. NNZ believed the timeframes for the CAS appeal were met.

Netball New Zealand Chief Executive Raelene Castle said NNZ had tried every avenue possible with the International Federation of Netball Associations to work through the issue before taking it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“We believed the case for Cathrine to become eligible was strong based on the previous IFNA precedent and so to not have the opportunity to have it heard by an independent body due to a technical ruling on timing is very disappointing. The ruling of CAS is our final point of appeal,” she said.

Castle said National Selectors would now take the next couple of weeks, to make a final review of available players for the final place in the 2011 Silver Ferns World Championship team.