Kadaga didn’t have to land in playing field

What you need to know:

The issue: Delaying a televised match
Our view: Kadaga’s chopper incident embarrassed the country and the Uganda Rugby Union. It is likely that Rugby Africa, the body that governs the sport on the continent, will fine the Union for Saturday’s mess. Kadaga did not need to land in the field of play to distract proceedings...

On Saturday, an army helicopter carrying the Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga and a team of MPs, landed in the middle of Legends Rugby Football ground at 2:30pm.
The Africa Gold Cup game between Uganda and Namibia had been pencilled to start at 2:30pm and both sets of players were on the field having gone through their pre-match warm-up routines and ready for kick-off.

But to the amazement of everyone at the ground, the chopper with Kadaga flew high above the skies of Lugogo and started descending towards the main field of play at a time when the game should have been getting started.
Some advertising hoardings were blown away by the winds from the main rotor blade of the helicopter and players from either side and fans couldn’t quite understand what was unfolding before their eyes.

When the helicopter came to a stop, Kadaga soon emerged with her team much to the chagrin of rugby fans who laboured to get to grips with what had transpired.
The Africa Gold Cup is being televised on Kwese TV and is being viewed all over Africa.
The reason why Uganda-Namibia’s kick-off was moved from 4:30pm to 2:30pm was because of live television.
As is the case with so many sports today, the scheduling of sports events of controlled by television companies.
Many of them pay top dollar to secure rights to broadcast these events and it is for this reason that all live sports games always start on time.

On Saturday, however, Kadaga’s chopper incident embarrassed the country and the Uganda Rugby Union.
It is likely that Rugby Africa, the body that governs the sport on the continent, will fine the Union for Saturday’s mess.
Kadaga did not need to land in the field of play to distract proceedings at kick-off time when there is Kololo Airstrip.
In fact, there was also the option of landing at Kyadondo Rugby Football Club or the field between UMA show grounds and Shoprite at Lugogo.

By the time the helicopter airlifted out of Legends, the game had lost 20 minutes. Kwese TV officials were not amused.
Meanwhile a number of fans who had planned to watch and finish the Uganda-Namibia rugby game before connecting to the Uganda-South Sudan soccer match- a 4pm kickoff, which was happening at the Philip Omondi stadium, had their planning ruined.
The Speaker and her handlers would do well to get their act in order the next time they are presiding over high profile events of a similar nature.