UHA miss chance to revive national sides
Missed Opportunity. Italian coach Antonio Spignolo (in cap) takes national hockey team goalkeepers Melissa Namuleme (L), Sylvia Giramia (C) and Esther Chelimo (R) through their paces during a training session earlier this year in July. The teams, however, did not travel due to financial constraints. Photo by Ismail Kezaala.
What you need to know:
- In the past NCS has stopped UHA from fencing off or sanding the pitch while also not availing money for the same whenever the pitch – that now has cuts on the astro and open gutters and bushes on the sides – is hired out.
- Last year, still banking on NCS, the U-18s failed to make it to Algeria for the inaugural hockey 5s at the Africa Youth Games further showing that UHA were not learning from past experiences.
Ironically, the Uganda Baati Hockey League that started earlier than usual – at the end of March – now threatens not to end, well at least not this year.
First, the league was pushed to start earlier than usual (May) because the men would have more games with the introduction of the Makerere Stingers. Each of the seven teams would play 24 games unlike last year when the six sides played 20 matches each.
But most importantly, Uganda Hockey Association (UHA) had rightly predicted that the national teams would need time to train for the August Africa Olympics Qualifiers in Stellenbosch – South Africa.
Fast forward to August – the trip did not happen for both teams but four hockey officials made the trip southwards for training courses.
After huge time and emotional investment from players, coaches and the wider fraternity, the frustration of not making it to Stellenbosch was always going to cause havoc.
Days to the tournament, UHA, which had invested all its hope for financial support in National Council of Sports, was yet to secure funds (about Shs527m) to take care of the teams’ transport, meals, kit, allowances and accommodation among others.
Amidst the challenges, UHA took a decision to withdraw the ladies’ team from the competition and work hard to send the men’s team before what was meant to be their second game against Nigeria (also disqualified). But the organizers, also incensed by Uganda’s continuous change of arrival dates, elected to disqualify the team that trained daily since June 26th. It was the second time in two years that the hockey national teams were failing to honour a continental tournament over money issues.
Boycott
Last year, still banking on NCS, the U-18s failed to make it to Algeria for the inaugural hockey 5s at the Africa Youth Games further showing that UHA were not learning from past experiences.
This latest episode caused so much chaos that a month was lost as six club chairpersons jointly communicated their decision “not to play in the league until certain demands are met,” in a letter addressed to UHA’s general secretary Phillip Wafula.
Wananchi’s Joshua Opolot – also ironically UHA’s publicist – Kampala’s Ronald Kawalya, City Lions’ Muhammad Ali, Deliverance Church’s Sharon Oroma, Rockets’ Joseph Kamini and Rhinos’ Susan Khainza signed the document that jointly demanded for audited accounts from 2017 and 2018 plus accountability for the 2019 financials among others.
Weatherhead chairman Jjuuko Kwagala and Makerere’s Mansur Muhoozi told us they were not approached by their contemporaries to put pen to paper and therefore opted to play their games. In the end everyone played except Rhinos and City Lions that have not graced the Lugogo astro since the end of the second round of the league in June.
About a month ago, in an effort to take care of the fixture log the Awards, Honours and Competitions Committee (AHCC) drew up new fixtures.
City Lions and Rhinos, who skipped their entire third round fixtures, were not on the fixtures for obvious reasons but appeared on their respective league tables as they could not be disqualified. Instead walkovers were awarded to their opponents for the games they missed.
As things stand, men’s table leaders Weatherhead are yet to play two games while defending champions Wananchi have three games in hand.
Kampala Hockey Stallions (KHC) Stallions and Makerere have to face off to end their season while Rockets and Historicals have one and two games to play respectively.
For the ladies’ second-placed Deliverance Church of Uganda (DCU) and third-placed KHC Swans completed their games but can be pushed a place down the table if Weatherhead can beat champions-elect Wananchi in the only pending ladies’ game.
Pitch issues
UHA’s plan to complete the games a fortnight ago could not arise as NCS hired the hockey pitch out for the East Africa Inter Parliamentary Games.
The relationship between NCS and UHA has always been volatile. In the past NCS has stopped UHA from fencing off or sanding the pitch while also not availing money for the same whenever the pitch – that now has cuts on the astro and open gutters and bushes on the sides – is hired out.
But giving away the pitch without any communication to UHA showed how much the relationship has broken down since August, when hockey players accused NCS of failing their Stellenbosch dream.
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
MEN’S TABLE
P W D L F A Pts
Weatherhead 22 18 3 1 107 16 57
Wananchi 21 17 3 1 111 16 54
KHC Stallions 23 11 7 5 68 35 40
Makerere 23 8 2 13 47 78 26
Rocket 22 6 4 12 33 68 22
Historicals 23 4 2 17 31 108 14
City Lions 24 3 3 18 22 98 12
WOMEN’S TABLE
Team P W D L F A Pts
Wananchi 15 13 1 1 69 12 40
DCU 16 6 4 6 31 24 22
KHC Swans 16 6 4 6 25 36 22
Weatherhead 15 6 3 6 23 21 21
Rhino 16 1 2 13 8 63 5
VOLATILE RELATIONSHIP
Broken Fences. The relationship between NCS and UHA has always been volatile. UHA’s plan to complete the games a fortnight ago could not arise as NCS hired the pitch out for the East Africa Inter Parliamentary Games.
