PBA looks to revisit UPC (Sabong News)
Author
Jonas Terrado
Date
MAY 05 2022
The PBA will look into revising the Uniform Players Contract in order to make it more adaptive to the current basketball landscape.
Treasurer Raymond Zorrilla said several provisions are being eyed to be included in the UPC, which has remained the same ever since it was introduced by the league many years ago.
“It has been in existence for decades so it’s high time to revisit it, given the recent developments and changes in the basketball world,” Zorilla explained Wednesday, May 4 in a virtual press conference.
Zorrilla made mention of expiring contracts during the season in relation to what transpired during the recent PBA Governors’ Cup when several players signed with other teams as unrestricted free agent while the conference was ongoing.
Five players, namely Rodney Brondial, Nards Pinto, Matt Ganuelas-Rosser, Chris Banchero and Jericho Cruz, switched teams after their contracts with their previous teams expired during the eliminations of the season-ending tournament.
“Definitely, we would be looking at provisions on expiration of players’ contracts while the season is ongoing, maybe a team that is in contention would be given the option to renew the player’s contract,” he said.
Also being considered is the inclusion of the league into the UPC, which, under the current form, is only an agreement between the team and the player, along with penalties for those who would violate any of the provisions.
“We would also suggest that the PBA would be a part of the UPC and we wanna make it a tripartite agreement with the league as the party to the contract,” said Zorilla.
“We’re looking at provisions at injury to players sustained while under contract. We would also look into provisions of using images of players even after their retirement, subject to agreements with the player also. We would be dwelling also on imposing fines and penalties for any violation of the UPC, whether by the team or the player.
“The main thrust of revisiting the UPC is to make it a contract of sanctity that would not be violated, that is fair not only to the PBA, to the team, but to the players as well,” added Zorrilla, who represents Phoenix Super LPG as its team governor.
