MPBL relaxes ruling on Fil-Foreigners in upcoming season

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

The Chooks-to-Go Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) just revamped its rules regarding the presence of Filipino-Foreigners playing for the teams.

After the announcement that the league is set to turn professional, the MPBL also confirmed that they will be removing the limit of Fil-Foreigners per team once the invitational tournament kicks off this December.

Since the beginning of the MPBL, the league strictly followed the “one Fil-Foreigner per team” policy and has always been the case for three seasons.

Aside from the Fil-Foreigner limit, the MPBL also imposed the six-foot-four height limit among the imports.

Now with a new season unfolding, the league welcomed the idea of a more relaxed set of rules for the Fil-Foreigners, scrapping both height and no. of players in the team.

Teams can now sign who they want for their rosters with no Fil-Foreigner limit and no height ceiling to be observed in the tournament slated to begin from December 11-21.

However, the league also bared that the specific rule change will only be temporary and will still be observed by the MPBL committee.

13 teams from all over the Philippines have already confirmed their participation in the highly-anticipated return of the MPBL. The teams include the Iloilo United Royals who just confirmed their spot via their team owner JJ Javelosa in a message to Daily Guardian.