Boxers petition UOC over Muhangi contracts
Some of the boxers after the press meet at East Coast club. PHOTO | ABDUL-NASSER SSEMUGABI
What you need to know:
- It also means they will miss international events because the UBF has designated the Champions League as the sole qualifier to the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the Africa Games in 2024.
Boxers who have rejected signing contracts with the Uganda Boxing Federation have petitioned the Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) for help on this constitutional matter.
In the November 19 document titled; “Violation of boxers’ rights to participate in Uganda Boxing Federation organised competitions,” the boxers expressed their grounds challenging UBF’s attempt to coerce them into signing “one-sided” contracts and requested Ganzi Mugula, chairperson of Athletes’ Commission, UOC to intervene.
Refusal to sign the contracts means the boxers, including national captain Musa Shadir Bwogi, David Ssemuju and Catherine Nanziri, who represented Uganda at the recent Olympics in Tokyo, will not participate in the Champions League, yet they qualified for the tournament that starts December 4.
It also means they will miss international events because the UBF has designated the Champions League as the sole qualifier to the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the Africa Games in 2024.
“This is very unacceptable and we must challenge it in all possible ways,” Mr Bwogi told the press at East Coast gym.
According to the four-year contract, a boxer must surrender “his or her image, name usage and other rights to UBF or UBF assigned agents.”
This abuses the boxers’ right to leverage opportunities to generate income in relation to their sporting career, name and likeness, while recognising the intellectual property or other rights, rules of the event and of sports organisations and the Olympic Charter, according to the IOC Athletes’ Rights and Responsibilities Declaration.
Boxers who attended the October 31 meeting said when they requested for a review of the terms of the contracts, UBF president Moses Muhangi told them: “You either sign, or you are out of the Champions League.”
“It’s our humble prayer that you use your good office to come in and rescue our future and the sport at large,” the letter concludes.
