Russian basketball team faces lawsuit from Colombia for posing as national team

The Colombian Basketball Federation has announced it will take legal action against an independent basketball team in Russia that allegedly used the name and uniforms of the Colombian national team.

The team plays in a tournament, the Russian Friendship Cup, in the city of Perm. The tournament features teams of Russian amateurs who unofficially represent various national teams. The Colombian federation claims that it has never allowed a team in the tournament to use its image.

“The Colombian Basketball Federation has not approved any club to participate in the Russian Friendship Cup,” the organization said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the president of the Russian Basketball Federation, former NBA player Andrei Kirilenko, claims that the team did indeed cooperate with the Colombian government through private channels and did nothing wrong.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

Retired Russian-American basketball player Andrei Kirilenko attends the draw for the 2019 FIBA ​​Basketball World Championship at Shenzhen Bay Arena on March 16, 2019 in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China. (Visual China Group via Getty Images)

“We would like to emphasize that all our interactions with the Colombian team took place exclusively through official communication channels,” Kirilenko told Match TV. “Our position remains unchanged: all communication and coordination are carried out only through verified and official sources.”

The team posing as Colombia has been one of the worst performers in the tournament so far, getting blown out 155-53 by a local squad before losing 108-57 to Venezuela. The team was scheduled to play Russia next on Friday, but that game has been canceled.

WISCONSIN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR TONY EVERS OBNOXED AT DNC FOR REFERENCE TO GREEN BAY PACKERS, THEN WILL NOT SPEAK

According to Kirilenko, the cancellation is because the team is performing so poorly that the schedule needs to be adjusted to take into account the differences with other teams.

The Colombian basketball players stand on the podium with their silver medals in the men’s basketball event during the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games at the Polideportivo 1 in the National Stadium Sports Park in Santiago on November 4, 2023. (Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images)

“After the first match, we understand that the current level of the Colombian team is below what was expected, which is a disappointment for all of us,” Kirilenko said. “In this regard, we have already revised the schedule and format of the tournament to ensure a more balanced and competitive competition.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The incident is just the latest in a series of punishments recently imposed on Russian athletes and sports institutions.

Russia was banned from participating in the recent Olympic Games in Paris due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine, which took place just four days after the end of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The invasion was a violation of the Olympic Truce, a resolution that calls on all countries to lay down arms and refrain from engaging in conflict, starting one week before the Olympic Games begin and ending one week after they end.

Ukrainian Armed Forces fight during military operations in Malaya Loknya, Kursk region, Russia. This screenshot is from a video released on August 20, 2024. (Air Assault Brigade/Handout via Reuters)

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva her Beijing gold medal was stripped after she tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned drug used to prevent angina, at the Russian national championships in December 2021. Valieva was found guilty of anti-doping rule violations in January, her team was disqualified and the gold was later awarded to the U.S. in Paris, more than two years after the first event.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports reporting on Xand subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.