Sport stays in no man’s land

Sport remains fully under lock and key, at least for the next 14 days, after President Museveni stayed its suspension in his Monday night’s update on the measures to contain Coronavirus.

While announcing some respite for construction, hardware shops, vehicle garages, restaurants, wholesalers and warehouses among others, the President was resolute on schools, religious assemblies and sports gatherings remaining under provisional lock for at least two more weeks.

“Let the school children stay at home. Even if they miss a term or a year, it is better than to hear they had a problem because we were impatient. Big gatherings, no,” said the President.

In his earlier explanation of a ‘real economy and vulnerable economy,’ Museveni said tourism, entertainment and sports et cetera can wait, for as long as food, shelter and defence among others are available.

More than leisure
“When conditions permit, however,” he said, then, “You can also take advantage of the leisure and pleasure economy of tourism, hospitality (hotels, casinos etc) and entertainment such as concerts, sports.”

Stakeholders welcome the measures to help combat the virus but feel the President should look at the industry more than just leisure, and that as the ease of lockdown rolls off, sport should be given a keener interest.

“Sports is a whole employment sector,” said Uganda Premier League (UPL) board secretary Peter Kibazo, “Each Premier League club directly employs a minimum of 50 people, multiply that by 16. Then there is the Big League.”

Fighting armour
Kibazo challenged the industry to wear their fighting armour: “I believe industry stakeholders need to engage with the President for him to appreciate what is at play.”

Mandela National Stadium (MNS) managing director Jamil Ssewanyana believes the sports industry is going to suffer more because of the social distancing measures.

“Sport is a contact activity,” he told Daily Monitor, “It also involves mass participation by individuals and groups.

“Competitions have been postponed and others cancelled. There will be all of inactivity for athletes.

“For the coaches and clubs, they will not be able to monitor the fitness levels of the players. The sports facilities are idle since there are no competitions and activities.

“The implications are that there will be no business, no revenues, and no wages.

“The silver lining is that we now go back to the drawing board to review our plans for improvement, better performance and growth of the industry.”

Fufa, UPL optimistic
Fufa, however, remain optimistic that panic buttons cannot be pressed yet.

“We still think with five rounds (of UPL) remaining, we need a maximum of one month to determine the winners and losers sportingly on pitch,” said Moses Magogo, the FA president.

“Not until we see that we can’t have the one month by August that is when we shall entertain the discussion of which buttons to press.”

Fufa and the UPL still have the luxury of calling on article 18 (ii) of the competitions rules on force majeure, that would make table leaders Vipers champions, and relegate Tooro, Proline and Maroons since 75 per cent of the season has been played.

Basketball hanging in there
Federation of Uganda Basketball Associations (Fufa) president Nasser Sserunjogi earlier told Daily Monitor they will have to adapt.

“We have plans to finish the season before end of October, if at all we start in the first week of June as we have projected,” said Sserunjogi, “The plan is to increase the number of games played per team each week.”

The 2020 Fuba National Basketball League (NBL) season was earlier scheduled to get underway on March 20.

[email protected]