New sports rules should be embraced

There is no escaping that impermanence is a part of life. At times it happens for good, others for worse, but depending on your attitude, you can decide what to make of it.

Whether it hits you hard, the most important thing is first acknowledging life is a cycle and, from some schools of thought I’ve read; rather approaching change from a place of denial and resistance, we need to try understand what is transforming and why. We need to embrace change and then start looking for and finding lessons in it, for it is the greatest teacher if you give yourself acquiescence to learn from it.

As one blogger from Costa Rica, Vishnu says; when you accept, embrace, and learn from change, you inevitably grow stronger, and that the ability to continuously accept change allows you to become as solid as a rock in the midst of violent storms all around you - even if you feel afraid.

So, here it is - change. And after 50 years of having a rag-tag and regulation-less Sports Act, whose standing before last week would make toothpicks proud; it is only supreme that we embrace it.

For long we have blubbered over the neither-here nor-there Act, with no Education and Sports Minister since 1964 having the cojones to establish regulations under which national sports associations can be formed.

It is no wonder Jessica Alupo will go down as that minister that oversaw the statutory instrument put in place following her assenting to it last week; just as the Uganda Super League Limited’s (USLL) Kavuma Kabenge and Fred Muwema, and Daniel Walusimbi-led Uganda Footballers Association (UFA), for championing and seeing through the cause.

Like all change, the regulations have been received with some cynicism, especially in some quarters where some clauses of the statutory instrument pose a threat to their nature of incorporation.

Article 4 (4) on registration of national sports associations states that “The council (NCS) shall not register a national association which is incorporated as a company,” a clause which directly affects Fufa, who are also registered as a limited company - and may need to deregister before any other step is taken.

Those supporting the registration of Fufa Ltd argue that the federation had to register as such so as to be able to sue and be sued, on top of entering contracts with sponsors.

They have also argued, for example, that Mandela National Stadium, Namboole is also a national asset yet it was registered as a limited company. But what they do not tell you is that Namboole was incorporated as a limited company in 1999 and classified under the Public Enterprise Reforms and Divestiture (PERD) in 2002, which regulates its disposal – still under government.

In contrast, Fufa Ltd can do as and to when they wish since government will not regulate their disposal. So to end all this murky confusion that has clouded football, we needed this clause in the new regulations.

Besides; rugby, cricket and basketball associations among others are not limited companies yet they transact business thanks to their body of trustees – and, Fufa themselves had sponsors for the Nile Special Super League late 90s long before they were incorporated as a company.
So, it is true associations can still make money even when they are not limited companies and Fufa must accept this change and the ministry guides on how stakeholders reorganize to register a federation that is of national nature under the new regulations.
This, if followed through, shall see us get back to the game proper and should bury questions of legality once and for all.

Excellent beggars
Of course it would be an injustice to limit the new regulations just to football, though they majorly owe it to football that they are finally in place; but the statutory instrument provides more than one reason we should embrace it.

For long sports federations have been excellent beggars to government every time an international engagement has come up.

That should end if government lives up to article 15 of the regulations, which says “the council or ministry responsible for sports shall not fund or support an association which is not recognized by the council.”

This should force the ministry to push through a policy, which should be passed by Cabinet and passed onto the Finance Ministry for sports associations’ funding to be fully covered in the national budget.

The proposed National Forum of Sports Associations – headed by the line minister - in the regulations should provide enough muscle for this as its objectives include recommending to the minister strategies for promoting and developing sports, attracting and soliciting for funding and partnerships for sports among others.

In turn, recognized sports associations will be obliged to present a copy of their audited books of account to the council annually – a move that will ensure accountability of public funds, grants and donations.

I have been asked whether this statutory instrument will solve all Uganda’s sporting problems today. And the answer is NO. Not today. But that it is the one correct step to the right direction is in no doubt in my mind.

Ministry should not limit self in sex scandal investigation

It was refreshing to learn yesterday that the Education and Sports Ministry had taken steps to probe the sex scandal that has gripped Uganda’s athletics.

Sammy Odongo, the ministry commissioner, is in Kapchorwa in Education Minister Jessica Alupo-sanctioned probe into the case and will seek to “find out first hand information regarding the whole issue.”

Odongo will speak to the girls who complained of sexual abuse, the accused coach and Gordon Ahimbisibwe, who was head coach during the March 16 Africa Cross-country Championships training camp in Bukwo.
He will also meet Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF) general secretary Beatrice Ayikoru to get a brief on the matter and the criteria used to select national coaches.
Asked why he would not speak to, say Moses Kipsiro – the whistle blower in this, and perhaps all the coaches since they were three in camp, Odongo explained: “We want to limit ourselves to the main actors in this. We do not want to involve ourselves in politics.” Yet politics is already threatening to block justice with UAF and Police’s (the said coach is an employee of both) efforts to serve it already leaving a lot to be desired.

And while we are at it, just how great it would have been had Alupo sent Odongo with at least a team of two women to speak with the affected girls? Or is it too late?

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