The first Sports forum that brought together all the sports federations in the country was held at Copper Chimney in Lugogo. This, was chaired by State Minister of Sports Hon Charles Bakkabukindi.
The event, which is supposed to be quarterly and will happen again in August, was organised by National Council of Sports – A statutory organ whose mandated to develop, promote and control sports activities in Uganda.
The well attended event that took place for more than five hours focused on how recommending strategies for promoting sports and advising on the nature of assistance and support given to National Associations.
All the 43 Sports federations, except Woodball due to an ongoing World Cup, Floorball, Squash and Ultimate Frisbie, were well represented.
And as expected, the discussion automatically focussed on the inconsistency in government funding with Federation of Uganda Football Association put on gun point for receiving the Lion’s share.
The above, was highly emphasised by Boxing head (UBF) Moses Muhangi who has been a big critique of the Football Federation (FUFA) and his leader Moses Magogo. The two interesting shared the table.
In some of his remarks, Hon Bakkabukindi emphasized that the Federations should be aware that Government is interested in taxes and what will help it excel politically, something which clearly implies that it’s numbers first before success.
Speaking for National Council of Sports, Chairman Bosco Onyik said:
“As Council, our commitment to work for the development of sports is unwavering, challenges notwithstanding. It’s through forums like this that sportspeople can share views and ideas and improve. This National forum of sports association as provided for in the 2014 regardless will be our Parliament.
“Today, there are less wrangles within these federations but there still remain issues of capacity building and corporate building and corporate governance which council is willing to support in order to iron out.”
He reminded the Federations heads that as they push for bigger budget allocations, they have to be more organised and strive to deliver the kind of success that keeps the agenda as the forefront.
It was recently reported that NCS needs an annual budget of shillings 196 billion to fund all the Federations activities in 2019/2020 financial year.
Of the 17.4 billion the Council gets, FUFA takes 10 billion shillings annually, 1.5bn goes to Athletics, 1bn each to Basketball and Netball. While other like Boxing receive Sh500M.
Boxing Boss – Muhangi Speaks Out:
“We have had one of the long awaited meetings called by NCS and this was basically out of the so many other reasons but also about our public outcry of how resources are being squandered.
“Am happy as a president because before I came out for this kind of sensitisation and advocacy, these things have not been happening so I think we have succeeded with fellow other federations that have not been part of this struggle.
“We have agreed that there should be levelled funding for all federations however small and we should also fund according to the priority sport which boxing is part, and also tagging funding according to performance.
“My job is to air out what am supposed to say and then they take it up. If they don’t, we shall continue pushing and pushing, we shall not stop looking for the president. People have been claiming that they have been getting a lot of money claiming that the president has given it to them, we will also talk to him and show all these things which we have been talking about. There is some light at the end of the tunnel I believe.
FUFA President – Moses Magogo:
“This is a very good forum, long overdue where different federations come together with the Minister and technocrats come together to try and forge a way forward for sports. We have some problems that are common to all of us and I think every federation has it’s own challenges, if we sat down and listened to the challenges, it would take long.
“What makes funding a resource is that resources are never enough.
“FUFA gets ten billion allocated, that money is not even enough for FUFA but what is important is that all federation can get a lot even more than ten billion. we just have to make a case to government and as FUFA we believe that we should be getting more than as an industry we should be moving as an industry because we can be a solution to the problems affecting this country.
“We have 70% of Uganda’s population as youth and they can be employed by sports not just football.
“As FUFA we believe that we can get ten billions but all other federations can get ten billions and more billions each as long as we can make our case to the government. We want all federations to get much especially athletes that are representing our country irrespective of what discipline they are in whether boxing, Athletics, what is important is raising the national flag high.”
