Sports funding: Mindset change is long overdue

FUFA president Moses Magogo

What you need to know:

Formula. Football shouldn’t be the alpha and omega principally because its success rate has nothing to write about. Funding should be informed by the rate of success. This is the norm allover.

The ongoing conversation about football taking a disproportionate part of government’s grant to the sports sub sector is welcome. This column has long suggested that a studied approach be used to guard against dishonest appropriation of the grant.
The sense of entitlement of those to whom the gearshift of football has been entrusted is hardly surprising. They have successfully managed to ride on the coattails of the broad appeal of the game. But if the sports sub sector intends to grow in leaps and bounds such superficiality will have to be debunked.

An age-old dictum offers counsel that is of great utility in warning us that numbers don’t bleed.
Government should look past the plastic narrative of the men’s senior national team having the potential to capture the imagination of hordes of Ugandans.
Other variables ought to be factored in if the sub sector is to reach its sweet spot.

The formula is not as simplistic as Fufa would want us to believe. Yes, football has the numbers, but it is foolhardy to suggest — as Fufa did in an extraordinary missive to Ugandan boxing’s top official, Moses Muhangi — that other so-called lesser sports have not incurred as much to build their brands.
Football shouldn’t be the alpha and omega in Uganda’s sports story principally because its success rate has nothing to write about.
Funding should be informed by the rate of success. This is the norm across the globe. In 2017, the British government for instance appropriated significantly more money to netball than football.
This was regardless of the fact that the beautiful game is a centuries-old bastion and actually traces its roots to the country.

Bold decision
The total sum of the bold decision pegged entirely on the potential of success was England winning netball gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. Football had and continues to have the numbers, but in a calculated move the British government chose to do what many in our Banana Republic choose not to. Which is: embrace a studied approach.
A quick question then, dear reader: who of the She Cranes at the 2019 Netball World Cup and the Uganda Cranes at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations finals do you think will earn their stripes when optimally bankrolled?

I would like to think you guess is as good as that of your columnist. Sadly, the She Cranes’ funding has been given a shock buzz-cut in spite of their proven track record. Reason?
The sport doesn’t have a broad appeal. How farcical! A paradigm shift in the thought and deed of those in positions of authority is long overdue. Don’t count your chickens though!