I hope that the government listens to us and help sort out the sports problems which are mainly caused by inadequate funding. Politicians only remember sports when it is putting them in the lime light. For instance, president Museveni ‘stole the show’ when he hosted a function for the successful 2006 Commonwealth Games team in April 2006.
The government has remained detached from sports as far as I can remember. NCS is inadequately funded. The UOC is independent of government funds because it is funded by the Olympic solidarity. Only five athletic clubs are recognised in the country of almost 31 million people. Some Athletes decide not to return to Uganda when they go for training or conferences abroad because they see no future of sports in the country( as was the case in 1998 when two of them decided to remain in USA and sought asylum).
Organisations like The uganda Amateur Athletic Foundation(UAAF) are totally reliant on the poorly funded NCS though they sometimes get help from big compnaies such as MTN.
You are also right that Football is the best sport in the world. For me, it’s my best entertainment at the moment and i’m happy that my team(Chelsea FC) have now got 4 wins out of 4 games in the league. The way we recently battered Burnley and Sunderland was awesome. I just can’t wait for the next game. ManU were lucky over the weekend because Arsenal did not deserve to lose that game.
Back in Uganda, the Federation Uganda Football Association (FUFA) where my former headmaster, Hajji Abbasi Kawase Mukasa is an influence, is one of the most ill-equipped and corrupt organizations in the country. Football and other sports is a big force in schools like Kibuli S.S because the administration there has got a budget for sports and they put too much effort in it. Sadly,I hear that sports in Kibuli S.S have declined ever since Hajji Kawase Mukasa was replaced as Headmaster.
Big national clubs such as Villa, Express and KCC are mainly funded by their companies and not the government or NCS. For instance, KCC is funded by Kampala City Council while Maji FC is funded by National Water Company.
Some people have tried to ‘clean’ FUFA by forming pressure groups such as ‘Save Our Soccer’ but they have had little impact. Some time in 2005, FUFA had to be suspended by FIFA till when Elections were held and Lawrence Mulindwa was elected as the new FUFA boss. FUFA has not been able to maintain good coaches such that the national coach had to be sacked in 2006 and compensated to the tune of $3500. Sports minister then, Charles Bakkabulindi, oversaw everything.
The truth is that there is no adequate funds to pay professional footballers, referees, and sports workers. Sport is almost dead in Uganda and few people are bothered with it. As for Boxing, I think it is one of the least funded sport in Uganda at the moment. The Uganda Amateur Boxing Federation had to withdraw from the Kings Cup organized by the International Boxing Association because there was no money to fund the whole thing.
Let’s hope that the next government, probably Besigye’s FDC, will look into this issue and galvanize sports again in Uganda.
Byebyo
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
Comments
Abbey, i am a sports ethusiast, just like you. I played football up to first division level, did boxing up to inter mediate level and did athletics (100 and 200ms) at National level.
Between 1998 and 1999, i ran an Athletics club that used to compete in national competitions and at the moment, i am running a football club that is competing in the First Division in Kampala. This means that my knowledge of sports in Uganda is good. Although i am in the media, i get pissed off by the way we have propelled foreign sports, especially the Premiership above our local sports.
I am one person who gets disturbed especially by the media when they promote the Premier league higher than local football. Just last night, an NTV newscaster read the Man U vs Leeds result in the main news items, before reading the Express Vs Villa match results. Express had taken on Villa at the same time as Man U played Leeds, but although the Man U match was on TV and the Express/Villa match was not, the NTV newscaster saw it wise to read the Man U match first! I think that was very bad and should be discouraged. I bet that by the time NTV read the results on TV, most people already knew the results, after all they weatched it on TV.
JOSHUA KATO
NEWVISION
Joshua Kato,
Now that you have disclosed that you are a sports enthusiast, you run a football club and most importantly you are in the media, I have one big complaint for you regarding coverage of Uganda’s soccer super league: why is it that all our newspapers cannot give us the league table even after we have requested hundreds of times that they publish it? We need to know at a glance which team is on top, which one dropped points, which ones are embroiled in a relegation battle….. we need to predict which clubs will represent Uganda in continental tournaments, we need to know at a glance how far we are from the end of the season! All this information can be captured in a simple table (P,W,D,L,F,A,GD,Pts). It should be obvious that a league table is a very important statistic for football fans. Is this too difficult to do even with our online newspapers? How do they expect us to follow our clubs passionately like they do with the English premiership? When you go to the BBC sports page where they cover football, the league table is permanently displayed and updated regularly. Can’t you fellows learn from them?
OGWANGA Sam.
UAH FORUMIST
Incidentally i am not in the sports section, however i have now and then complained to my fellow sports writers about this. Apparently, they say that even the National Football League organisers do not have an up to date league table every time. I expected to see the table for example today since almost every team in the league played yesterday, but i have not seen it. I have always encouraged my fellow sports reporters to up date the table everytime a match is played.
JOSHUA KATO
NEWVISION JOURNALIST/UAH FORUMIST
The problem is just simple when you talk about sports we only look at certain sports and forget about the others. But the other problem is people that are chose to be in charge of sports have never even participated in any kind of sport in their life so they know nothing to do to help improve the sport.
When you look back in the 90′s when Moses Ali was in charge of sports there was a difference though he only concert rated on football and boxing but we had some improvement.
We need the right people to help promote the game.
John Lema.
UAH forumist
Joshua Kato
I need to briefly respond to your question to Abbey Ssemuwemba. There are two reasons why foreign games are covered more than local games, it is market value, reporters target what pays more than what gives information to local people. Second very important point. The movement has planted the un nationalism mind in people but many of us have simply given up about this country that simply cannot move forward. And those of us as myself that studied the movement right from Luwero we decided to abandon ship at that time, but today in 2009, many slow thinkers have started to see that Uganda is actually heading into a freight train, and if you are smart get out and today, at minimum if you care about the future of your children.
If the best that Ugandans have today is to look for FDC under a cover of a coalition, then really I had a reason to give up on this country way back in the 80s So as the slow thinkers have started to join us in huge numbers, the interests of the information flow also changes. Surely Abbey Ssemuwmeba loves more details about Chelsea than your local team, so Ssemuwemba’s requirements are going to be followed by broadcasters than a Ugandan sitting in Kampala, for Abbey pays the tune. We are soon going to reach a point where media is controlled by foreigners and Ugandans abroad as Kenya is, as I saw in Cuba last time I visited the island. 20 years from today even local programming’s as Ebirango will be choked off.
That is the short and long term damage the Movement has planted in Uganda.
EDWARD MULINDWA
Uganda residing in Canada