SPORTS BILL: UOC independence largely protected

When the new National Sports Bill becomes law, Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) will continue to exist in the country in accordance with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Charter as has been the case.

UOC is registered under the Company's Act and exists in Uganda to promote Olympic sports and values. It does this as an umbrella body superintending over the 33 federations governing Olympic sports disciplines in the country.

Usually all UOC look at to recognize these federations, is their affiliation to the international federation governing the respective disciplines: say whether Fifa recognizes Fufa.

There were attempts in the government bill and private member Moses Magogo's bill to have the Minister of Education and Sports define the functions of UOC and who sit on UOC executive committee.

But consultations by the Committee on Education and Sports which was tasked with harmonizing the two bills ensured the status quo at UOC is maintained but with a caveat.

UOC will now be required by law to recognize only federations registered by National Council of Sports (NCS). They must also work with the Minister and NCS to organize teams for the Olympic Games but this has already been happening as government hugely funds the games. 

Good working relationships 

Also working with NCS-endorsed federations is not an alien requirement but it was a cause of friction ahead of the 2017 UOC elections as the leadership then was not having it. However, a letter from the IOC calling for dialogue between the two bodies softened things and culminated into the signing of a two year long Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which saw UOC recognize NCS as the body that registers federations before they can be recognized elsewhere.

Relationships between the two bodies greatly improved that the recent chairpersons of the NCS; currently Ambrose Tashobya and his predecessor Donald Rukare both 'come from UOC.' Moses Mwase, vice president (technical) at UOC, was also selected by NCS in 2021 to work with the Solicitor General and others to come up with funding guidelines for federations.

The current UOC leadership believes in the need for government regulation in sports. But their could be concerns on whether the new law does not give room for government to overreach and interfere with federation activities.

The other issue is that since the MoU had expired in 2020, UOC had gone back to recognizing federations - like equestrian, modern pentathlon among others - that are yet to be registered by NCS. Suffice to note that this has caused no tensions between the bodies so far.

Also the federations, UOC and NCS will have 12 months from when the President assents to the new bill to streamline things. UOC will also be required by law to have a representative on the NCS board.

Given the close working relationships of the two umbrella bodies over the last five years, these should be easy hurdles to skip past.